Reply To: What would be a good general-purpose gouge?
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Paul features the 35mm 7 sweep in the spoon making video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krAIHRCx9R0 from 11:50) for spoon making.
I’m not an expert, but it really depends mostly on what you will want to do with it. There are dozens of gouge variants (sweeps 1-11, various V-chisels and specialist tools, each in straight, curved and spoon gouge (crooked), most from 2-100mm in size, check this for an impression: https://www.hobbyschnitzen.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/STUBAI-Schnitzeisen-Serie52er.pdf), which is very different to bench planes.
If you want to just have a gouge for the odd thumb hole or such, a sweep 6-9 with 20-30mm might do, but in that case I would see what I could get second hand or on sale and take whatever I find.
If you want to get into carving, check Mary May’s free introduction to carving gouges (https://www.marymaycarving.com/carvingschool/2012/06/28/1-woodcarving-basics-all-about-gouges-introduction/ – requires free registration), but expect to start with at least a handful.