Looking for Carbide chisel recommendations

[FLTurn]

Afternoon,

Considering getting a lathe, would these be a good all around, easy to maintain and use for Pens, spindles, rings, billy clubs? Accidentally posted in introduction forum by mistake.

Benjamin's Best Carbide Wizard 3 Piece Chisel Set with Rougher, Cove Cutter and Detailer

Now you can get all the benefits of carbide with the value and performance of Benjamin's Best. With their super sharp carbide cutters and custom designed ergonomic handles these chisels will wiz through your material for faster results and eliminate the need for sharpening. Guaranteed to last 20 tim

www.pennstateind.com

 

[NJturner]

Afternoon,

Considering getting a lathe, would these be a good all around, easy to maintain and use for Pens, spindles, rings, billy clubs? Accidentally posted in introduction forum by mistake.

Benjamin's Best Carbide Wizard 3 Piece Chisel Set with Rougher, Cove Cutter and Detailer

Now you can get all the benefits of carbide with the value and performance of Benjamin's Best. With their super sharp carbide cutters and custom designed ergonomic handles these chisels will wiz through your material for faster results and eliminate the need for sharpening. Guaranteed to last 20 tim

www.pennstateind.com

If you are looking for cheap and low quality, these would be the purchase. They are some of the more needed shapes of carbide, but Benjamin's Best are not known for being really great quality. Look at Easy Wood Tools as potentially better and they go on sale often at a lot of suppliers

Kevin

 

[FLTurn]

If you are looking for cheap and low quality, these would be the purchase. They are some of the more needed shapes of carbide, but Benjamin's Best are not known for being really great quality. Look at Easy Wood Tools as potentially better and they go on sale often at a lot of suppliers

Kevin

Will looks at them thank you.

 

[egnald]

I concur with FLTurn. I started out with this set of Rockler Carbide (and HSS Parting Tool). Then I bought a Mid-Sized Easy Wood Tools Easy Finisher (round cutter). I really liked the longer handle, so I wound up buying their Rougher (square cutter with radius), Detailer (diamond shaped cutter), and Carbide Parting Tools. After that, to save some money I started making my own carbide turning tools using the basic shape of the Easy Wood Tools as a guide. It can be very satisfying turning things with tools of your own making. - Dave

PS I also buy my replacement carbide cutters (except for the parting tool) from Ron Campbel at AZ Carbide.

 

[bugradx2]

Rockler and Woodcraft also have their own carbide tools. I've used the rockler tools and Easy Wood both.

I'd say the Rockler carbide are entry level lathe tools but they'll make nice tools as long as you rotate the heads when they get dull and replace when you run out of rotations. I used mine to make a lot of pens and other creations.

Easy wood tools are more expensive but I do think they're a higher quality tool overall and I'd swear their carbide lasts a longer but I no quantitative data to back that up.

One additional thing to consider. If you're going to get into turning with carbide then using tools that have a negative rake cutter head available may well be worth your time, money & effort. The negative rake cutters are specifically designed to work with resin based materials. You can use regular cutters on resin but it may get frustrating because they can be aggressive with some resins. You can buy one set of handles and put the different heads on them as you need and that will be much less expensive. You'll just need to keep track of where you've used the head. OR you can buy dedicated handles for regular cutters and dedicated handles for negative rake. Negative rake will cut wood, just slower due to the nature of the design of the cutter.

 

[FLTurn]

I concur with FLTurn. I started out with this set of Rockler Carbide (and HSS Parting Tool). Then I bought a Mid-Sized Easy Wood Tools Easy Finisher (round cutter). I really liked the longer handle, so I wound up buying their Rougher (square cutter with radius), Detailer (diamond shaped cutter), and Carbide Parting Tools. After that, to save some money I started making my own carbide turning tools using the basic shape of the Easy Wood Tools as a guide. It can be very satisfying turning things with tools of your own making. - Dave

PS I also buy my replacement carbide cutters (except for the parting tool) from Ron Campbel at AZ Carbide.

Saw your post about your homemade versions, amazing quality, will check out AZ carbide. Thank you

 

[FLTurn]

Rockler and Woodcraft also have their own carbide tools. I've used the rockler tools and Easy Wood both.

I'd say the Rockler carbide are entry level lathe tools but they'll make nice tools as long as you rotate the heads when they get dull and replace when you run out of rotations. I used mine to make a lot of pens and other creations.

Easy wood tools are more expensive but I do think they're a higher quality tool overall and I'd swear their carbide lasts a longer but I no quantitative data to back that up.

One additional thing to consider. If you're going to get into turning with carbide then using tools that have a negative rake cutter head available may well be worth your time, money & effort. The negative rake cutters are specifically designed to work with resin based materials. You can use regular cutters on resin but it may get frustrating because they can be aggressive with some resins. You can buy one set of handles and put the different heads on them as you need and that will be much less expensive. You'll just need to keep track of where you've used the head. OR you can buy dedicated handles for regular cutters and dedicated handles for negative rake. Negative rake will cut wood, just slower due to the nature of the design of the cutter.

Thank you for the tool maker differences and mentioning of the negative rake.

 

[d_bondi]

+1 on the Easy Wood Tools. I use their cutters, but like Dave (@egnald) I made my own tools that use the EWT cutters. Mine are also modeled after the EWT handles, specifically the midsize ones.

I know many folks use the shorter handle tools, but for me, I like the additional control of the longer handles. If you decide to turn larger objects, you will definitely want longer handles.

 

[FLTurn]

+1 on the Easy Wood Tools. I use their cutters, but like Dave (@egnald) I made my own tools that use the EWT cutters. Mine are also modeled after the EWT handles, specifically the midsize ones.

I know many folks use the shorter handle tools, but for me, I like the additional control of the longer handles. If you decide to turn larger objects, you will definitely want longer handles.

Good to know about the longer handle length assist. Have found a new 3 piece easy wood carbide set online for $165.00 but out of stock. So will have to look around more.

 

[bugradx2]

Good to know about the longer handle length assist. Have found a new 3 piece easy wood carbide set online for $165.00 but out of stock. So will have to look around more.

when you shop Easy Wood (and I would guess other retailers) if you watch the handle size you'll see the cutter heads may be able to go across different size/lengths of handles. I have the mini handles and the mid size handles and they use the same cutter head.

to @d_bondi comments above, I have the mini handles set up with negative rake which is pretty much just pens or handles for me and the mid size set up with regular cutters for larger stuff. I like the longer handle for the same reason he does.