Cheap Tools

[Oka]

Not sure where I got this gouge, but it was what I grabbed to test the new DC motor I installed on my lathe.

I was cutting on a bowl blank and hit a small knot (I think) and the toll jammed. But instead of the motor stopping it just sheared this tool.

Goes to show you what cheap-Chinese high speed steel performs like. Based on the break it looks like they used a impure steel and or the quenching process in the tempering was done wrong. Not sure if its one, two or both.

The gouge was was given to me ....... but instead of sharpening and keeping, I should have gone with my gut and tossed it. When I was sharpening, it acted like cheap steel.

Either way, lesson learned.... relearned ........... At least I know the motor works very well ............

 

[awldune]

What brand (if any) is stamped on the handle?

Not to excuse the steel quality, but the tool appears to be a large spindle gouge rather than a bowl gouge.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

That was one of the first things I noticed years ago about steel tools coming out of China. The steel is soft. I first saw it w/ six-point sockets. They would round-out on the inside.

 

[bob vaughan]

What brand (if any) is stamped on the handle?

Not to excuse the steel quality, but the tool appears to be a large spindle gouge rather than a bowl gouge.

I'm with Sam on this.
Steel snapping like that would be a natural result of cramming a dull spindle gouge straight into a spinning bowl blank, particularly if the tool were extended too far out from the tool rest.

That steel still looks worthy of shaping and sharpening into a good spindle gouge. There's plenty of steel left.
Sure, it might not be the quality of a $100.00 spindle gouge, but it beats the heck out of sharpening an old screwdriver.

I have a spindle gouge with that shallow profile and use it quite often for removing large volumes of waste.

 

[Oka]

Yeah it is a spindle gouge, sorry the bowl blank was what I had mocked up it was an outside pass and the wood has some kind of imperfection. But it snapped so easily it was not shoved into the piece it just caught and I was not holding all the hard. But the tempering process was done wrong

I have some pretty nice Sorby bowl gouges they were just on the work table and I was too lazy to get them ..........