Scott
Member
I've had a number of questions about the neat little tools I used on the last couple of pens I posted pictures of. I mentioned that I have an article coming out on these tools in More Woodturning (http://www.fholder.com/Woodturning/woodturn.htm). What you see below is a rough draft of the article that will appear in the upcoming issue. Please let me know if you have any questions! Scott.
-----
As reported in last month’s issue, Ashley Iles tools have just become more available in the US since they are now represented by Tools for Working Wood (http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/). They have a line of miniature turning tools intended for penturning and miniatures. I received a couple of these tools from Joel at Tools for Working Wood to review and offer my comments. This article is my impression of these tools.
I received four tools to evaluate. There was a set of three tools, which include a roughing gouge, an oval skew and a beading and parting tool. The fourth tool I received was a mini round-nose scraper. The tools came well packed, with the three-piece set in a compartmented box, and the scraper in a nice plastic sleeve.
All of the tools I received were High Speed Steel, and came handled with nice beech handles. They are sharp from the factory, with the tips dipped in a protective plastic coating. Most turners will probably want to touch them up before using. The fit and finish of these tools is very nice, with grinding marks pretty well cleaned up, and the sharp edges rounded off.
The blades of the four tools I tested are from 3†to 3 3/8†long. The handles are about 6†long, except for the roughing gouge, which has a handle about 4 ½†long. That’s right, these tools vary in total length from 7†to 10â€. Remember they are intended for miniature turning and penturning.
The miniature scrapers come in both round-nose and square-nose, and in both 3/16†and 3/8†widths. The one I chose was the 3/16†round-nose scraper. The blade is right at .144†wide, which is a bit less than the .187†I calculate 3/16†to be. The thickness of the blade is .263â€, which is better than a quarter of an inch! For a miniature scraper, this is one hefty little tool!
The three-piece tool set is an interesting mix! The beading and parting tool is listed as 3/16â€, and measures out at .161†on both the width and thickness. The tip is ground to the spear point that is common with larger beading and parting tools. The oval skew is listed as ½â€, and indeed it measures out at .500â€.
Of all of these the tool I was most intrigued with was the small roughing gouge. It is listed as 3/8â€, and it measures correctly at .375â€. It appears to have been machined from solid 3/8†round bar stock, with the deep rounded flute common to larger roughing gouges. The flute extends a full 2†before it begins to taper out, and from there on back the blade retains it’s full 3/8†profile for the remainder of it’s length. So even though this is a miniature roughing gouge, there is nothing miniature about it’s construction.
I’ve had the opportunity to turn a number of pens using these tools. I tried to use each of the four tools on each pen, some more, some less. The following are my impressions of each individual tool.
3/16†Round Nose Scraper
One thing I occasionally like to do when turning a pen is to offset a series of beads with a series of matching coves. While I have ways to produce small beads, it is often difficult to achieve a series of consistent small coves to match. That is why I was particularly interested in the small, 3/16†round nose scraper when I saw it. I have used this scraper in a couple of different ways, but mainly I used it to plunge right into the wood, sometimes cutting as deep as 3/8â€, trying to get a deep narrow cove. Because of the thickness of this tool, it excelled at this kind of cut. Only once did I have any kind of serious chip-out at the edge of a deep cut, and that may have been operator error.
I also used this scraper in a couple of other classic scraper operations, such as wide shallow coves and tapers. It did just fine with this kind of cut, but one might wish for a little wider tool for longer tapers so the tool can help support itself. For wider cuts like this I would prefer using a spindle gouge or even a small skew. But for narrow coves I can’t imagine a better tool! I imagine this tool would also be very useful in cleaning up the “corners†of deep coves and other details on all kinds of turnings, including the outside of bowls. I have to admit that this is a great little tool, one I will enjoy having in my arsenal!
3/16†Beading and Parting Tool
As I noted above this tool is made from square stock with the classic spear-point profile we see in larger beading and parting tools. It did a fine job of parting a tenon in the end of a pen barrel. I imagine the narrow square-end scraper, which I did not review, might work just as well for this purpose, and have the ability to refine the details better.
The beauty of this tool lies in it’s ability to cut nice even small beads. I like it much better than my usual method of cutting beads with a skew. I just lay the tool on the stock, and pull it back to where it is almost ready to start cutting down in to the wood like a parting cut. Then I just roll it to the side, and it cuts the nicest little half bead. I can quickly go down the shaft of a pen barrel, rolling this tool left and right, cutting nice beads that are very consistent. The only thing I have seen that cuts small beads easier is a fluted parting tool, but you can’t adjust the size of the bead there as you can with this beading tool. This is as nice a tool for cutting small beads as I have used!
½†Oval Skew
I have a nice ½†oval skew by Sorby that I use on almost every pen I turn. The Ashley Iles ½†oval skew is about half the length of the Sorby, and as you would anticipate, it has much less mass as well. I like the profile of the little Ashley Iles skew. It is rounded on one edge, the edge that ends in the toe of the skew, and flat on the other edge. For some reason this profile seems to work really well for me.
I used the skew for most of my refining cuts to bring the pen down to shape after roughing. It takes and holds a nice edge, and makes clean cuts, as you would expect from any decent HSS skew. I found myself feeling crowded with this skew because of it’s short length. This is the only one of these small tools I felt that way about. That may be because of the short length of the blade, at around three inches. But I also think that it’s lack of mass contributes to that. A skew is a tool that is brought to the turning stock in all kinds of slopes and angles, and I think the blade on this skew is just a bit too short to comfortably accommodate some of these angles.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a nice little skew. And it would excel at the fine detail work involved in a lot of miniature turning with ornate profiles. But for the majority of use in penturning I think this tool would have been better off if they had shortened the handle by an inch or so, and increased the length of the blade by the same amount.
3/8†Roughing Gouge
Let me get this out of the way right at the start â€" I am a big fan of this neat little roughing gouge! It is part of the three-piece set of tools, but can be purchased separately.
Like most turners I am accustomed to the large heavy roughing gouges that are found in everybody’s shop. As a matter of fact, I recently acquired a big P&N roughing gouge that is a real peach! So I wondered if this little gouge was going to be nothing more than a toy. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s not a toy!
It is made from solid 3/8†HSS bar stock, with the flute machined out, so the outside diameter is retained at 3/8â€. The profile of the flute is the same as you would find on the larger roughing gouges. The handle is shorter and fatter than on the other three tools I tested, which I find particularly useful for roughing purposes. I can brace the handle in the palm of my hand, which helps to soak up and control the shocks involved in roughing down square stock.
I usually rough pen blanks at higher speed than I do for larger spindles. This allows me to take a lighter cut and move faster. This little gouge is perfect for this kind of fast work! It is very maneuverable, and the lack of mass is made up by being able to brace the short handle against the heel of your hand. I find that I can rough down square pen blanks just as fast with this little gouge as I can with a full size gouge. With a little practice I suspect I might end up doing it faster!
Summary
I was pleasantly surprised by these nice little tools made by Ashley Iles! But then I have always been pleased by tools that are designed with some thought to the use of the tool, rather than just copying what else is out there. These tools are meant for use with small turnings. They are great for pens, and I suspect they would be wonderful for miniatures. I highly recommend you call Tools for Working Wood at 800-426-4613, or stop by their website (http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/), and check out these nice little tools.
-----
As reported in last month’s issue, Ashley Iles tools have just become more available in the US since they are now represented by Tools for Working Wood (http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/). They have a line of miniature turning tools intended for penturning and miniatures. I received a couple of these tools from Joel at Tools for Working Wood to review and offer my comments. This article is my impression of these tools.
I received four tools to evaluate. There was a set of three tools, which include a roughing gouge, an oval skew and a beading and parting tool. The fourth tool I received was a mini round-nose scraper. The tools came well packed, with the three-piece set in a compartmented box, and the scraper in a nice plastic sleeve.
All of the tools I received were High Speed Steel, and came handled with nice beech handles. They are sharp from the factory, with the tips dipped in a protective plastic coating. Most turners will probably want to touch them up before using. The fit and finish of these tools is very nice, with grinding marks pretty well cleaned up, and the sharp edges rounded off.
The blades of the four tools I tested are from 3†to 3 3/8†long. The handles are about 6†long, except for the roughing gouge, which has a handle about 4 ½†long. That’s right, these tools vary in total length from 7†to 10â€. Remember they are intended for miniature turning and penturning.
The miniature scrapers come in both round-nose and square-nose, and in both 3/16†and 3/8†widths. The one I chose was the 3/16†round-nose scraper. The blade is right at .144†wide, which is a bit less than the .187†I calculate 3/16†to be. The thickness of the blade is .263â€, which is better than a quarter of an inch! For a miniature scraper, this is one hefty little tool!
The three-piece tool set is an interesting mix! The beading and parting tool is listed as 3/16â€, and measures out at .161†on both the width and thickness. The tip is ground to the spear point that is common with larger beading and parting tools. The oval skew is listed as ½â€, and indeed it measures out at .500â€.
Of all of these the tool I was most intrigued with was the small roughing gouge. It is listed as 3/8â€, and it measures correctly at .375â€. It appears to have been machined from solid 3/8†round bar stock, with the deep rounded flute common to larger roughing gouges. The flute extends a full 2†before it begins to taper out, and from there on back the blade retains it’s full 3/8†profile for the remainder of it’s length. So even though this is a miniature roughing gouge, there is nothing miniature about it’s construction.
I’ve had the opportunity to turn a number of pens using these tools. I tried to use each of the four tools on each pen, some more, some less. The following are my impressions of each individual tool.
3/16†Round Nose Scraper
One thing I occasionally like to do when turning a pen is to offset a series of beads with a series of matching coves. While I have ways to produce small beads, it is often difficult to achieve a series of consistent small coves to match. That is why I was particularly interested in the small, 3/16†round nose scraper when I saw it. I have used this scraper in a couple of different ways, but mainly I used it to plunge right into the wood, sometimes cutting as deep as 3/8â€, trying to get a deep narrow cove. Because of the thickness of this tool, it excelled at this kind of cut. Only once did I have any kind of serious chip-out at the edge of a deep cut, and that may have been operator error.
I also used this scraper in a couple of other classic scraper operations, such as wide shallow coves and tapers. It did just fine with this kind of cut, but one might wish for a little wider tool for longer tapers so the tool can help support itself. For wider cuts like this I would prefer using a spindle gouge or even a small skew. But for narrow coves I can’t imagine a better tool! I imagine this tool would also be very useful in cleaning up the “corners†of deep coves and other details on all kinds of turnings, including the outside of bowls. I have to admit that this is a great little tool, one I will enjoy having in my arsenal!
3/16†Beading and Parting Tool
As I noted above this tool is made from square stock with the classic spear-point profile we see in larger beading and parting tools. It did a fine job of parting a tenon in the end of a pen barrel. I imagine the narrow square-end scraper, which I did not review, might work just as well for this purpose, and have the ability to refine the details better.
The beauty of this tool lies in it’s ability to cut nice even small beads. I like it much better than my usual method of cutting beads with a skew. I just lay the tool on the stock, and pull it back to where it is almost ready to start cutting down in to the wood like a parting cut. Then I just roll it to the side, and it cuts the nicest little half bead. I can quickly go down the shaft of a pen barrel, rolling this tool left and right, cutting nice beads that are very consistent. The only thing I have seen that cuts small beads easier is a fluted parting tool, but you can’t adjust the size of the bead there as you can with this beading tool. This is as nice a tool for cutting small beads as I have used!
½†Oval Skew
I have a nice ½†oval skew by Sorby that I use on almost every pen I turn. The Ashley Iles ½†oval skew is about half the length of the Sorby, and as you would anticipate, it has much less mass as well. I like the profile of the little Ashley Iles skew. It is rounded on one edge, the edge that ends in the toe of the skew, and flat on the other edge. For some reason this profile seems to work really well for me.
I used the skew for most of my refining cuts to bring the pen down to shape after roughing. It takes and holds a nice edge, and makes clean cuts, as you would expect from any decent HSS skew. I found myself feeling crowded with this skew because of it’s short length. This is the only one of these small tools I felt that way about. That may be because of the short length of the blade, at around three inches. But I also think that it’s lack of mass contributes to that. A skew is a tool that is brought to the turning stock in all kinds of slopes and angles, and I think the blade on this skew is just a bit too short to comfortably accommodate some of these angles.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a nice little skew. And it would excel at the fine detail work involved in a lot of miniature turning with ornate profiles. But for the majority of use in penturning I think this tool would have been better off if they had shortened the handle by an inch or so, and increased the length of the blade by the same amount.
3/8†Roughing Gouge
Let me get this out of the way right at the start â€" I am a big fan of this neat little roughing gouge! It is part of the three-piece set of tools, but can be purchased separately.
Like most turners I am accustomed to the large heavy roughing gouges that are found in everybody’s shop. As a matter of fact, I recently acquired a big P&N roughing gouge that is a real peach! So I wondered if this little gouge was going to be nothing more than a toy. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s not a toy!
It is made from solid 3/8†HSS bar stock, with the flute machined out, so the outside diameter is retained at 3/8â€. The profile of the flute is the same as you would find on the larger roughing gouges. The handle is shorter and fatter than on the other three tools I tested, which I find particularly useful for roughing purposes. I can brace the handle in the palm of my hand, which helps to soak up and control the shocks involved in roughing down square stock.
I usually rough pen blanks at higher speed than I do for larger spindles. This allows me to take a lighter cut and move faster. This little gouge is perfect for this kind of fast work! It is very maneuverable, and the lack of mass is made up by being able to brace the short handle against the heel of your hand. I find that I can rough down square pen blanks just as fast with this little gouge as I can with a full size gouge. With a little practice I suspect I might end up doing it faster!
Summary
I was pleasantly surprised by these nice little tools made by Ashley Iles! But then I have always been pleased by tools that are designed with some thought to the use of the tool, rather than just copying what else is out there. These tools are meant for use with small turnings. They are great for pens, and I suspect they would be wonderful for miniatures. I highly recommend you call Tools for Working Wood at 800-426-4613, or stop by their website (http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/), and check out these nice little tools.
