Woodturning Projects

We are here to discuss woodturning  and woodturning tools. Woodturning refers to a form of wood working where objects are created with the help of a wood lathe. However, it must be pointed out that woodturning differs from other forms of wood working.   In most woodworking you cut, shape, and attach wood together using various joints to create an object.  In woodturning the wood is turned at high speeds on a lathe and it is shaped into a finished object without adding anything to it.  Essentially you are stripping away wood to form the desired shape.

There are two different kinds of Woodturning and they are: spindle turning and face plate turning. In spindle turning the wood is fixed between two points. The center of the spur digs in to the wood which is powered by a motor. And the other which may be a hard center or a live center is a set of points in the tail stock.  However, in face plate turning, the wood is fastened with the help of screws to a face place and hence the name. Most bowls that we normally use in our daily life are face plate turned, while pens, spindles and some vessels is spindle turned. However, the method so employed may differ based on certain parameters such as shape of the blank and the technique of the turner.

As understood above the two kinds of techniques are used to cut the wood and provide proper finishing to it. Now we shall delve deep into some of the woodturning tools used.  Three different kinds of steel are used to construct the wood turning tool which are steel, Carbon Steel and High speed steel.

Woodturning Tools

The kinds of turning tools and how they are used are listed below:

• Roughing gouge: This is a kind of chisel which is hard fluted used to initially round a wooden spindle and then shape it.
• Spindle gouge: This is a kind of gouge which is shallow in nature used to create spindles intricate details on spindles including beads and coves.
• Scraper: A scraper is a tool which scrapes the fiber of the wood instead of cutting it.
• Auger: an auger is a kind of drill which is used to drill a hole partway or all the way through a wooden item.
• Parting tool: This is a kind of a tool pointed in nature which is used to separate the wood from the machine tool, also known as lathe and then to create a straight edge which would in turn separate large and small diameter sections.
• Skew Chisel: A skew chisel is a kind of chisel which is wide and is steeply pointed with the edge running at an angle to the length of the tool.

For more information on each of these tools and reviews click on the links above or you can find more woodturning tools and reviews in the menu to your right.