I'm not very knowledgeable about steel; about the various types used in tools and about their qualities. Added to that, I have a mixed bag of tools, some new, but many that were bought second hand. In particular, I have two main bowl gouges that I use regularly, and their qualities are fairly well matched when they're freshly sharpened, but very different once they've been used a little. My 'new' gouge is a Record Power HSS and it keeps its edge well, but my 'old' one is a Henry Taylor Diamic, but this one loses its edge rapidly. I use CBN wheels and have noticed that the new gouge hardly produces any sparks, whereas the Taylor gouge produces a flurry of bright yellow.
My problem is this....when I'm turning up at the shop, rather than in my main workshop, the only sharpening facilities that I have is a little diamond slip-stone, so I tend to sharpen all my tools at home after work, taking duplicates of most of the tools to the shop so that I can continue working all day. Does anyone know what grade of steel is in the Diamic tools, and why they don't hold their edge so well?
Les.