A New Chisel
Most of us start our collection of woodturning chisels more by chance than design. In my case I was trying to turn wood soon after meeting the intermediate school lathe, long before I read a woodturning book or heard about a woodturners guild. So my first choice of shop for tools was the local hardware store - chisels that looked good on the shelf; or would sell; or met some buying policy of the store. Certainly those chisels were a poor buy.
When I learned a little more and realized how bad my tools were, I went to my nearest woodturning tool specialist and purchased a few of the best on offer. This was a significant investment and a major step up in the comfort of my woodturning and the quality of the finished product. These were Crown chisels made in Sheffield and purchased from Tanner Engineering.
Now Crown Tools have produced a new range which they call 'PRO-PM'. The PM is for Powder Metal which has advantages of:
In total they consider that this steel "far outshines that used by other manufacturers, making our 'PRO-PM' gouges the ultimate woodturning chisels."
The gouge profile is very slightly different - whether by design or chance is not clear - with a slightly (9%) deeper hollow thus providing longer sides which can be sharpened as useable edges. The handle is 50mm longer and, while I can't reach to the very end while turning, this provides good balance to the tool.
To test the claims for this better steel I used a couple of big puriri blocks which were due for roughing out. The new chisel (the only sample supplied) was 12.4mm diameter and my old, also Crown Tools, chisel to compare with it was 13.0mm diameter. I sharpened both to the same angles. Cutting began - a bit of a slow job with small chisels and unbalanced slowly-rotating wood - but the only way I could fairly compare the two. By the time I had roughed out the two blocks, used my bowl-saver and made two more roughs from the middles, the old chisel was long gone but the new chisel continued to cut nicely. So I pulled out a lump of pohutukawa and went through the same process. After rounding the outside, bowl-saving the middle and starting to take out the inside the new chisel needed a sharpen.
My notes on time used for each chisel showed that the new chisel worked three times longer than the old chisel.
When I learned a little more and realized how bad my tools were, I went to my nearest woodturning tool specialist and purchased a few of the best on offer. This was a significant investment and a major step up in the comfort of my woodturning and the quality of the finished product. These were Crown chisels made in Sheffield and purchased from Tanner Engineering.
Now Crown Tools have produced a new range which they call 'PRO-PM'. The PM is for Powder Metal which has advantages of:
- High working hardness
- Superior wear resistance
- Excellent toughness
- High retention of hardness
- Excellent grinding
In total they consider that this steel "far outshines that used by other manufacturers, making our 'PRO-PM' gouges the ultimate woodturning chisels."
The gouge profile is very slightly different - whether by design or chance is not clear - with a slightly (9%) deeper hollow thus providing longer sides which can be sharpened as useable edges. The handle is 50mm longer and, while I can't reach to the very end while turning, this provides good balance to the tool.
To test the claims for this better steel I used a couple of big puriri blocks which were due for roughing out. The new chisel (the only sample supplied) was 12.4mm diameter and my old, also Crown Tools, chisel to compare with it was 13.0mm diameter. I sharpened both to the same angles. Cutting began - a bit of a slow job with small chisels and unbalanced slowly-rotating wood - but the only way I could fairly compare the two. By the time I had roughed out the two blocks, used my bowl-saver and made two more roughs from the middles, the old chisel was long gone but the new chisel continued to cut nicely. So I pulled out a lump of pohutukawa and went through the same process. After rounding the outside, bowl-saving the middle and starting to take out the inside the new chisel needed a sharpen.
My notes on time used for each chisel showed that the new chisel worked three times longer than the old chisel.
