Is the art / skill of turning on the way out ?

[KevinMc]

Is it not just great that there are still people who want to try and become proficient at woodturning maybe using a mix of tools they feel happy to use.

Keeping Woodturning alive an contributing to the AWGB or other such forums and Woodturning clubs 🤔

Taking lessons from RPT turners...buying tools from Woodturning firms and so on

Who actually knows how much sanding was done when you view a finished piece?🤔

Maybe we should never have moved away from the pole lathe if moving to use Carbide tools is such a worry?

Standing back to receive the flack 😬

[crazylegs]

Yep good points. The important thing is that people are doing it and enjoying it. I have a mixture of old and new tools, most of which I have yet to master properly. That is the point though I enjoy it enough to want to master the tools. Carbide tools are an easy option and I think are a good way of getting people into the craft, it allows you to get a completed item reasonably quickly. Most people when starting want to finish something. Once you have made you first piece, carbide or not, you then start looking at others work and then start to see what tools were used and how they are used. Getting people turning is far more important than what they use. If you start like me you would never have heard of a carbide tool. I got my first one after about 6 months and then made my own. I use traditional and carbide. Each have their own place.
I can never see a time when steel is replaced, you are then not a turner just a tool holder.

[John Plater]

The means by which a piece is made is down to the individual, each of whom will have a different take on what they enjoy doing and how. If the piece then "goes public" the criteria then change. It really does not matter how it was made provided that there is a quality about it which appeals to the viewer of it.
ATB John

[Bryan Milham]

I always remember, back in the day, when Norm Abram had to turn a set of legs or similar on the American program 'The New Yankee Workshop'.

He'd badly shape one, with seemingly little knowledge of how to use the tools, leaving a really cut up finish. Sand it into something that looked really great (yeah, right), then use a copy lathe that left an awful finish for the next 3 whatever's and seemingly sand them to match the first.

As far as I can see (I stand to be corrected) all Carbide tools are basically scrapers. Yes you can get a good finish off a scraper, if you know how it works and use it properly, but beginners pushing scrapers into lumps of rotating wood seems dangerous to me. Almost back to the old school days of scrapers made from old files to make a bowl for Mum!

[bodrighywood]

. Almost back to the old school days of scrapers made from old files to make a bowl for Mum!

That's how I leared. Files were much better aquality steel in the good old days LOL. Seriously, some woods are a waste of time trying to juse a scraper IMHO. Can be done but you get through a heck of a lot of abrasive.

pete

[fuzzyturns]

..., but beginners pushing scrapers into lumps of rotating wood seems dangerous to me. ...

Well, in that case we actually stand a chance that Darwin will kick into action and the unfit will not survive. Sadly, modern day society seems to have mostly eliminated that for mankind.

[Les Symonds]

As far as I can see (I stand to be corrected) all Carbide tools are basically scrapers.....

....not so, Bryan. There are two types of carbide cutters and it's important that novice turners learn to identify the difference.

• there's the type that this thread is about, which have flat upper surfaces and act exactly as scrapers
• there's the type (such as Simon Hope's cutters) which are dished on top and which are used with a bevel rub, making them a cutting tool, not a scraper

Les

p.s. .... I wouldn't use the former, but frequently use the latter!

[Redtails4]

Hi
To wood spinner that the answer if they want to it comes down to what and how far you want to go?
Tungstun carbide cannot be sharpened in the conventional way depending on the purity and what it's purpose is it's cheaper to throw it away  you cannot grind it most will shatter, on most of the carbide sold today there are a vast range of coatings applied  you start grinding , lapping them the coating is only micron thick  so sling it into the bin.its gone .very  few can be lapped back to sharpness only say crystiline boron can be recut using a lap
These inserts are well inexcess of a hundred quid each and are used to finish turn /mill where the cut is no more than a few thousands of a inch .once you have used tungstan carbide for maching and its usefulness is done itscrap  once upon a time they used to put it into safes between the sides into the cavity's.
Remember the plastic bottle?

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

I know there are the arguments for using carbide tools but look how much money you can save by learning to use traditional tools.