Some things don’t change

[Jonkou]

Had an epiphany while cleaning up the shop today. Is it the tools you use or how you use the tools that make you better at your craft. Are the latest and greatest really better? Welcome your comments.



George’s tools RIP, one of the best box Turners I ever met. He really liked that new hurricane parting tool.

 

[trc65]

It's definitely how you use your tools that matters.

All of the new steels, grinds, accessories and various "gizmos" will make one more efficient, but a new tool will never make anyone better at putting that tool to wood. For that, there is nothing better than time spent in front of the lathe.

Likewise, watching videos, attending seminars and demonstrations are great for exposing one to new techniques, but until an individual can spend time at the lathe perfecting those techniques the skill level is not increased.

Give someone like Richard Raffan an old high carbon gouge, and I'd be willing to bet no one here could turn a similar object in the same time with any tool of your choice. Experience matters!

 

[woodtickgreg]

Tools don't make the craftsman, the user makes the craftsman.
Now having said that I like good quality tools.

 

[phinds]

Before I really had any idea what turning was all about, I bought the absolute cheapest lathe that money could buy. It was something like $55 from Harbor Freight and it consisted of two steel rods with a headstock on one end and a tailstock on the other and I had to bolt the head- and tail-stocks to a wooden base and clamp it onto my work bench (I didn't have room in the one car garage I was using at the time to make it a stand-alone lathe). I then got to hang a motor off the side of the headstock. Every time I wanted to use the workbench I had to unclamp the lathe and prop it in a corner.

I then bought the absolute cheapest lathe tool set that money could buy. It was a set of 8, I think it was, incredibly poor tools for something like $10. Carbon steel so dulled quickly but took a great edge.

I turned something like 200 bowls with that setup. Some of the lathe tools went from about a 6 inch blade to about 2 inches from constant sharpening.

Folks seemed to like the bowls and after I had given one to pretty much every friend and relative I had, I was still cranking them out so I figured I had to either go make new friends or make new family. The new family bit didn't sound all that great, entailing as it did bigamy and more kids, neither of which sounded like a good idea. As for making new friends, well, I'm not all that friendly. SO ... I started selling them and it went reasonably well. Here are a few of them


Now, again, these were created with a lathe and tools that would make most turners gag, but I didn't know the difference so ...

I don't think the tools make the turner, I think the turner makes the turner. Tools are secondary.

 

[2feathers Creative Making]

I had an epiphany once... then I woke up and it was gone...
Anyhow, the tools can help at certain levels, a good mid grade tool in expert hands can do more that an awesome top of the line tool in an amateurs hands.

 

[Nature Man]

How one uses tools is #1. Better tools only improve on results! Chuck

 

[barry richardson]

Most of my turning tools are embarrassingly cheap and/or crude (the ones I have made) but they do the job for me. I would be happy to use expensive tools if someone gave them to me, but I cant justify the price personally, I guess I get my thrift from my depression era parents.

 

[DLJeffs]

All one has to do is study how craftsmen made things 100 years ago and the answer becomes obvious. That said, it's also true that modern tools have made making things easier and faster.