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What's this odd gouge for?

Mike G

Mike G

Petrified Pine
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Mike
I have just acquired this rather strange gouge, and am struggling to think of a reason for it being the way it is:

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So, it's very small, has a very flat profile, and a very pronounced thumbnail-type shape ground on the business end. It also has a very very shallow bevel...I'd guess at under 20 degrees. The grind looks like something a turner would use when viewed from above, but the bevel is surely way way too shallow for turning, and the handle is just not that of a lathe tool. Carvers don't tend to have rounded shapes as far as I know. The thing is so small that it surely designed only for pushing by hand, and not really for tapping with a mallet.

So, has anyone got a clue? Or even a guess?
 
The norm with carvers is to preserve the corners of a gouge, but this is by no means absolute.
This gouge appears from the photo to be about a No: 3 or 4 on the Sheffield list and moderately shallow; I would expect that a previous user ground and sharpened that shape to accommodate a particular repetitive cut.

The immediate use for this shape that springs to my mind is a series of fingernail scallops that you would see on a run around a carved frieze or a frame.

A gouge of a particular shape would be driven vertically into the work at regular intervals and in a line. Next, a scallop that terminates within this shape scooped out with this particular gouge that would suit the profile of the cut. Normally a conventional gouge would need to be rocked in the cut to make a clean junction. This shape avoids that and any termination marks from rocking the hand side to side.

That's one way that it could be used. It has been done for a particular and regular task, by the look of it.

You could keep it that way or grind it straight across if you have a use for that.

P.S. One other use that I would put it to, as a carver, is for a particular form of grounding into a recessed or hidden area.

Hope this helps explain........
 
I've just a done a whole lot of fingernails:

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At the end of the scallop when you meet your stab (vertical) cut I just can't see how this shape would work at all, especially at the corners. Besides, unless you're working in something very soft such as lime or a fruit wood you'd need a mallet for thumbnails. I reckon this is just too shallow a profile, too. You might be right, though, about using it for taking levels down to a ground.
 
Mike,
I wasn't thinking of Nulling as a feature for this profile - you're right, it wouldn't suit the base of the arcade style, rather, I was thinking of the other way round, where the scoop terminates inside the flute, like an inverted thumbnail, forming, for example, a run of scallops interspersed with beads......
Alternatively, something dreamed up by a pattern-maker: those guys came up with all sorts of unusual tools.

It's a solution that you have in your hand....... now work out the original problem!

Can I see a a maker's mark on the shank and can you read who made it?
 
Nulling?

I'll go and find some glasses and see what I can make out of the maker's name.
 
It wouldn't surprise me that it's been in the hands of an idiot who's ground it for woodturning, I've come across a couple like that which were in the possession of a woodturner.
 
Argus":1q2hl7iw said:
.......It's a solution that you have in your hand....... now work out the original problem!....
Click to expand...

:D Indeed. It might take me a while..... :D

I bought it because of the flatter profile, and it will soon be ground to a more orthodox shape. I have seen shells carved with a curve on the end which goes the other way to my thumbnails, and this gouge would clean those up quite nicely, I think.
 
Trevanion":102ygl7s said:
It wouldn't surprise me that it's been in the hands of an idiot who's ground it for woodturning, I've come across a couple like that which were in the possession of a woodturner.
Click to expand...

I suppose a pen maker might have use for a tool like this, but boy, it's small for lathe work.......and that bevel is really shallow.
 
Well, Moulson is a firm we've heard of.......

By 'Nulling' I meant the generic classical term for regular, notched decoration - in your case, looking at the very impressive photo, I suppose the term is 'Arcading'.
Nice work, too.
 
Thanks for the explanation. I guess as I learn this new area of woodworking I ought to learn the terminology as well. :)
 
Looks like a stunted, turning scraper to me.
But what do I know? :mrgreen:

Okay it's short for a lathe tool, but I do have scraper which is ground just like that; except it is flat on both sides.

(I have since learned to use gouges and skews I should add.) :text-lol:

Mike... I like the carving. Would those 'fingernail scoops' be used for a table edge in oak?



John
 
One thing that might be worth saying is that it wasn't made as a turning tool - it's got a bolster, which you only get on a tool that needs to be pushed hard or knocked with a mallet.
 
AndyT":26eaa028 said:
One thing that might be worth saying is that it wasn't made as a turning tool - it's got a bolster, which you only get on a tool that needs to be pushed hard or knocked with a mallet.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, it's definitely a proper carving chisel but it wouldn't surprise me that it's been used for turning even though it's really too delicate for that kind of strain.

I suppose unless the original owner comes forth and explains why he/she did it we will never know :lol:
 
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