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Home > Wood Turning Tools - Old Becomes New
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Wood Turning Tools - Old Becomes New by Darrell Feltmate
The world of wood turning has been with us for a long time. Historians tell us that the ancient Egyptians were wood turners and even left painted carvings of wood turners on the pyramid walls. One would think that the advent of higher technology would have greatly changed the wood turner's arsenal of tools, but it just has not happened.
Wood itself, the essential ingredient of "wood turning," has not changed in the life of the world except for the variations of grain, hardness and texture that give us the natural beauty of the material. It still cuts the same way after three thousand years as it did at the beginning.
At some point in history someone discovered that wood could be made to turn round and a sharp edge would peal off a shaving. Wood turning had been found and it now remained to search out the perfect edge that made the perfect shape.
While the first edges were likely on pieces of flint and other stone, the shapes were going to have to be straight or curved, just like the tools of today. Quickly it was found that one could cut or scrape away the surface of the wood and tools became separated into cutters or scrapers. The scrapers were called scrapers whether curved or straight but the cutters became gouges if they had a groove down center and chisels if they were flat.
Surprisingly, the tools of a thousand years ago are the same as the tools of today. The real change has been in the metal that makes them up. Stone gave way to bronze, iron and steel and now the steel has many different chemical compositions that give it different edge holding and sharpening characteristics. That edge still has to be sharpened and it still has to be presented to the spinning wood in such a way that shavings curl off the material and a turned piece is left.
The history of steel becomes the history of turning wood. With better steels came better, longer lasting edges. Hence lathes could be made to turn faster and to handle larger pieces of wood that could be shaped with the new tools. Learning to use the new ones was no effort for the wood turner as they were the same shape as his old ones, just the steel had changed. In fact, things had gotten easier as the new edges had to be sharpened less often. Now some tools are specially treated with cryogenic cooling to make an edge last even longer.
Remarkably, manufacturers managed to come up with variations on the theme of chisel, gouge and scraper with simple alterations to the curve of the channel in a gouge to the thickness of the metal in a scraper. It turned out that the hobby turner in particular liked to buy tools and most variations found customers. Professionals, on the other hand, had to keep a close watch on the bottom line and tend tended to use three or four tools most of the time. Still, a ready market will continue to encourage innovation in shape, thickness, steel structure, and form so that the wood turner will have not only new wood but also new tools with which to experiment and reach enjoyment for a long time to come.
Darrell Feltmate is a juried wood turner whose web site, http://aroundthewoods.com , contains detailed information about wood turning for the novice or experienced turner as well as a collection of turnings for your viewing pleasure. You too can learn to turn wood, here is the place to start. Wondering what it looks like? Follow the page links for a free video.
http://aroundthewoods.com
About the Author
You can easily ask your questions about wood turning at his blog at
http://roundopinions.blogspot.com
as well as comment on any thing related to the web site, this article or other aspects of wood turning, art and craft.
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