Gouge Sharpening Guidelines

Hey y’all! Here’s a quick guide on the gouges we have and how to sharpen them. Please only use the right grinding wheel, as the left one is coarse and only for re-grinding the profile on the tool, not sharpening.

General gouge sharpening tips:

  1. For all gouges, try drawing on the bevel with sharpie before you sharpen! This will show you what areas you’ve hit already so you don’t grind too much!

  2. If the tip of the bevel is touching the wheel, but not the butt of it: move the guide towards the grinding wheel! Is the butt of the bevel touching the wheel but not the tip? Back the guide away from the wheel! Combine this with tip #1 to line up your gouges and limit your time sharpening!

  3. For gouges 4-14 you need to use the One Way sharpening jig that clamps to your gouge! Insert the gouge, make sure only 2 inches are sticking out (pictured below) and tighten the clamp!

  4. Adjust the angle of your gouge profile on the bottom of that jig, referring to the guidelines for the tools listed below by number. If you need to figure it out by hand, here’s how! Set up the gouge so the bevel is flat against the grinding wheel, now rotate the gouge to the side. Is there a gap between the tip of the bevel and the wheel? (Pictured below) then the guide is too far forward and you need to bring it back.


What if you’re too far back like this? Then you’ll have a gap between the butt of the bevel and not the tip when you rotate it, and your guide is too far back. Bring it forward!


Guide to Specific Gouges:

Gouges 1-3: Roughing Gouges
These don’t use the One-Way jig that clamps the gouge, just put the butt of them in the tool rest attachment, line up the grinding wheel with the bevel on the gouge, color in the bevel like in tip #1 and give it a few passes once you have the tool guide set correctly.

Gouges 4-5: Larger Spindle Gouges
These had a more open profile, set up the jig as shown below.

Gouges 6-7: Bowl Gouges
These have a more blunt nose profile than 8-9. Set the jig up as shown below

Gouges 8-9: Bowl Gouges
Slightly steeper profile than those above, use case is up to personal preference. Set the jig up as shown below.

Gouges 10-12: Mid Size Spindle Gouges
Set the jig up as shown below.

Gouges 13-14: Small Spindle Gouges
Great for detail work, jig similar to mid size spindle gouges, shown below.

This is just how everything is currently set up and cutting well. I want to color code the jig and the gouges to make sharpening faster and more effective, but want to hear y’all’s feedback first before I cement anything! So let me know if you have any suggestions on profiles you want on the tools.

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This would be great information to link to on the wiki!

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This is great work, and a great write up. Thank you for all thw work your doing for the lathe area! @drew.hynes

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Thank you both! Let me know if there’s any action that I need to take to get the instructions on the wiki.

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Whoops! Didn’t see this. Any member can edit the wiki - you just need to be logged in to Discourse I believe. Let me know if you have any trouble!

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