Today I have made progress with my giant chess piece globe stands. The material I use for these is very abrasive and blunts the normal gouge quickly, so I got out my tungsten carbide gouge. This is a true gouge with a flute, not a scraper. It has a curved piece of carbide inserted into a groove in a steel shaft. It’s one of those tools that ought to be useful, but isn’t. I bought it years ago for this purpose. Every once in a while I get it out, only to rediscover its fault. Today I once again confirmed the reason I don’t use it much.
Carbide grades
There are different grades of tungsten carbide, some suitable for cutting wood. The grade used for this tool is not one of them. The best edge that I can get on it with my diamond hones is still blunt. People do say that carbide stays blunt much longer than high speed steel! The turning is hard work, either using the carbide tool or a normal HSS gouge – that is at least sharp when it begins to cut, but blunts very soon.
Carbide scrapers
There are now carbide tipped scrapers sold for turning, with a sharper grade of carbide. I bought some tips allegedly similar to the popular brand and made them into similar tools. They cut a lot better than my carbide gouge, but soon became blunt. Where are the woodturning tools with diamond tips? Now they would be real progress!