A new love

[ldimick]

When I first strtaed to learn to turn pens I was using a gouge. It worked well for me. I tried using a skew and had no problem with it but it did not feel as magic as the gouge.

My brother is getting married this weekend and I am making my bro and sister in law a set of pens. Since their colors are white and Hunter Green I called BB and Kathy set me up with some wonderful Green Curly Poplar. I bought six stabilized blanks.

With the gouge the first pen turned out fine. The second one was a complete blowout. So I decided top sharpen the gouge more frequently. The third one was marginal at best.

For the fourth one tonight I decided to return to the skew thinking was that I was 'ripping' the wood with the gouge where I could use the skew to shave the edges off by raising the rest a bit higher.

Magic!

So now I have an appointment (of sorts) to meet Ken in Las Vegas Saturday morning, get the pens lasered, and make it to the weding at noon.

The moral: Don't fall in love with a single tool to the excl;usion of all others.

 

[tipusnr]

Thanks for sharing your story. Hope you have a great time at the wedding!

 

[Doghouse]

There is something to be said for being smart enough to change tools when one is not working!

 

[JimGo]

Lynn,
Congratulations on the pens; I'm sure they will be much appreciated!

 

[rtjw]

To live and learn is better tahn to have lived and never learned. Or something like that!

 

[dougle40]

Lynn,
Welcome to the club . For the longest time I only used the skew as a scraper but then I learned how to use it properly and it's now become one of the more used tools . I still use the gouge to do most of the roughing out but then revert to the skew for final sizing .

 

[jdavis]

We also rough with the gouge and final size with a skew. Students seem to have a greater success with the gouge. They get in a hurry and blow-out very often. Welcome to the group.