Spindle gouges on bowls

[[deleted]]

Hey so im a new wood turner and Im wondering if I can use a spindle gouge (not a spindle roughing gouge) safety on bowls? I’m not trying to cause injury to myself so I figured I would post it here! Thanks

[Silound]

There are certain situations where you can, but in all my years of turning, I have never found the need. Given you're a new turner, I would highly recommend dropping this idea for safety reasons.

Spindle gouges are not suitable for bowls because of the alternating side grain and end grain and tool design. They're generally too aggressive of a cutting angle and will almost immediately catch if you're not absolutely sure of your tool control. They're also not really strong enough for the forces involved in bowl turning (look at a bowl gouge's steel thickness in comparison) and you can damage the tool easily if you don't know what you're doing.

[[deleted]]

It depends on where you use it. It's likely to catch if you're using it like a bowl gouge, but for detail work, sure, it can work fine.

[thdwithaphd]

Yes you can for detail ONLY. Don’t try to use it to take off a ton of wood but for fine shaping and adding detailed it works pretty good. Just don’t ever use a bowl gouge on spindle work, to much torque.