A beginner from Mississippi

[SENC]

Thank you sir! I'm looking to buy a good grinder today, and this advice is so helpful. I've already bought the Wolverine grinding jig and Vari-Grind attachment, I hope its not too inferior to the Kodiak.

The wolverine setup is perfectly good, that's what I had for a long time. I updated mine with the Kodiak stuff, mainly to be consistent with what our club uses and what our Kids Making It shop was putting in at the time. The Kodiak system has some "presets", for lack of a better term, that make repeatability quicker and easier, but basically works the same way. The Kodiak flat rest is superior to the Wolverine in that it is designed to allow changing the angle without having to move the rest in and out... but, again, that is a simplicity of use improvement rather than one that yields a better result.

 

[Ray D]

Welcome from another avid turkey hunter from Florida. Making turkey calls is also a passion of mine

 

[JonathanH]

Parker, Welcome from North Texas!

There is some great advice in this thread already. Learning to sharpen and when to sharpen will make learning how to turn wood much easier and provide better results right away.

After acquiring the lathe, cutting tools, and sharpening set up, one of the next steps is to have a good chainsaw (or 3). With the chainsaw you are able to acquire all of the domestic species of wood that you can use for the cost of the oil, gas, chains, files to sharpen the chains, and your labor. Free wood is everywhere around us if we open our eyes to it.

The advantage of having all of the domestic wood at your disposal is that it is practically free and provides practice to hone your skills without wasting expensive woods.