Fig. 56.
I saw all my pieces for turning, into square strips. I never split them; splitting shivers and cracks hard and precious wood, and makes unsound that which was previously sound.
Besides, it is more economical and more expeditious. If you cannot saw them yourself, handily, take them to the nearest wood-worker who has a circular saw, and he will do it for a trifle.
CHAPTER XII.
TOOLS FOR WOOD TURNING.
It does not seem necessary to go into the discussion of tools, or shapes of tools, for wood turning, for the grand and great reliance for roughing is the gouge, and a skillful workman will do as many things with it as the Russian carpenter is said to do with his axe, which is almost his only tool. For smoothing, there is the flat chisel, and for special work, every one will find tools, or, rather, make those he finds best suited to his needs.
I would, however, here say with great earnestness, that it makes all the difference in the world what kind of steel you get in your tools, whether they are worth any thing or not. I never found any turning tools in stores, that I considered worth any thing. They are generally made for working soft woods, such as pine, but the amateur needs tools of a different class and temper. Hard woods are full of dust on the outside, and seem more or less impregnated with silica, the principle which forms the coating on the stalks of rye and cereal grains generally, which destroys the cutting edge in a short time, and also draws the temper. I have therefore found it convenient to make my own tools out of the best steel I could buy, and temper them myself. The difference is very marked, for where I formerly went to the grindstone every few minutes, I now use a tool a long while, thus saving many steps and minutes.
I therefore repeat—choose your steel from such as you find the best, and harden it yourself. If you don’t know how, a few trials will enable you to do it “everytime,” as the saying is. I have found Sanderson’s, Jessops, and Stubbs, all good steel; also Park Brothers American steel first-rate for general work. No doubt there are some who will take up this book, and for the first time read of the matters contained therein, to whom hardening and tempering are “all Greek;” to such I will explain the process.
Very often amateurs buy tools which are good if they were only properly hardened, and to them also, it may be of service—if they do not already know it—to be able to do this simple thing.