Reply To: Henry Taylor old/vintage woodcarving tools
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / Henry Taylor old/vintage woodcarving tools / Reply To: Henry Taylor old/vintage woodcarving tools
Well, the first thing that I did with Chris Pye was to spend a lot of time on the elements of sharpening…. that is essential before cutting wood – which can’t be done with a blunt tool.
The Sheffield list is an approximate gauge of the widths and sweeps for English-made tools. It probably dates from the 19th C. In its simplest form it relates the width (in inches) of a gouge across the flute versus its sweep (radius).
In the Sheffield system, No 1 is a straight chisel, No 2 a skewed chisel. Sweeps start at No 3 (the shallowest or greatest radius) in graduations up to No 9 ( a semi circle).
First thing is to get a scale copy of the list and work out which gouges you have already.
good luck