Forever A Newbody !!
I agree with Hank in recommending carbide tools for newbie turners (and I think that I always will be).
Carbide gets you nicely to your goal of turning a decent pen (with the help of a bit of sandpaper) without you having to go through Frustration Purgatory of learning about gouges, skews, and sharpening. . Nobody but a newbie can fully appreciate this little piece of Sublime Eternal Bliss that you can enter through the Arch of Carbide.
Mind you, I continue to persecute my soul by striving to learn to use HSS. . Just yesterday, I took a Lee Valley hands-on seminar on lathe tool sharpening, which got me a usable gouge (... but, was it a bowl gouge or was it a spindle gouge ? ... only the Woodturning Devil knows, or indeed cares !). . The session terminated with an opportunity to apply the fearsome tool to a rapidly spinning piece of maple. . I exited the shop, red-faced, having been told that I was holding the tool upside-down ... with me retorting loudly, "It Worked !"
Turns out that "upside-down" was not quite the right descriptor as used by the instructor who was hastily shooing us out of the shop . . I did indeed at least have the flute pointing in the correct direction, and I was clutching a nicely rounded spindle so I feel justified in claiming some progress.
Even with that dubious bit of progress with HSS ... please give me carbide, and let me use it. . Still my preference, after 2000 pens along Carbide Avenue, featuring both wood and acrylic pens of all types !
Sharpening HSS is, I feel, just like the initiation ritual that Artisan Tradespeople like to enforce on their Apprentices. ... A bit like the old Motor Mechanic who insists that his underlings must use a timing light instead of a microprocessor-based engine analyzer.
Sure, it would be nice to bring a pen to the finishing stage with just a skew and throw away the sandpaper. . But, while that Skewed part of my brain is undergoing its painful and bloody programming, the other, Carbide Brain, can be exulting in successful projects to the accolades of admiring family and friends, who graciously accept their new and beautiful pen gifts ... which may, however, simply stand indefinitely in an IAP BASH mug by the counter-top telephones in their kitchens ... while waiting to be rediscovered in some eons-hence archeological dig !
Bring on the controversy ... I'm outa here !! . BTW, I "liked" Jim's post immediately above, composed while I was composing this !
Let's see if Jim reciprocates and "likes" mine ! :biggrin:
