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10. BASIC WOOD TURNING
10.2 USING WOODWORKING CHISELS - FIG. 11
Professional woodturning chisels have handles
approximately 250mm long. This provides the operator
with good grip and leverage. A sharp chisel will be much
easier to work with and will give the job a cleaner finish.
Fig.11 shows the six most commonly used types of turning
chisel.
10.3 THE THEORY OF TURNING - FIGS. 12 - 13
There are two types of turning chisel. These are:
1. Those intended primarily for cutting,
2. Those used only for scraping.
The cutting chisels are the gouge, skew and parting type.
These are sharpened to a razor edge by honing on both
sides.
The scraping chisels are the flat nose, round nose and
spear point. These are not honed on the flat sides - the
wire edges produced by scraping are left on to aid in the
scraping process (Fig.12). Shows the two types of chisel.
CUTTING AND SCRAPING:
To make a cut, the chisel should be held so that the sharp
edge actually digs into the revolving workpiece, shavings
should now peel off. To scrape, the chisel should be held
at a right angle to the surface of the workpiece, fine
pieces of wood will be produced when scraping instead
of shavings (Fig.13).
Many operations require the cutting chisel to be used for
scraping but scraping chisels are very rarely used for
cutting. Scraping will blunt/dull a chisel much faster
especially when using razor sharp cutting chisels.
Cutting is much faster than scraping and produces a much
smoother finish. Cutting is more difficult than scraping,
but scraping is more precise and easier to control.
FIG.11
FIG.12
FIG.13
Gouge
Skew
Parting
Tool
Spear
Point
Flat
Nose
Round
Nose