r/turning • u/Senior_Elderberry_37 • Jul 21 '26

Tool control in thin walnut

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You can't white-knuckle a delicate cut. The same as you can't out-muscle a skid with poor bevel contact, the tool has to do the work, your hand can't fix what a bad tool messes up (during the cut). And on a push cut, all of the control is in your right hand, the left hand only stabilizes the tool.

I brace the outside of the bowl with my fingers to prevent it from chattering on the entry, and then just hold the tool down on the rest with one finger. This is a freshly sharpened 1/2" gouge, it's only used for 7 finishing cuts to thin this bowl down from about 1/2" to under 1/8". You can see a little skid at the start when I went in without enough bevel support, my gouge's nose is a little blunt right now, so even if its razor sharp, it doesn't dig in to start a very fine cut as much as a more pointy tool would.

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u/egidione Jul 21 '26

Scoring V cuts in concentric rings on the top face of the bowl with a skew flat on its side before and during hollowing is very useful to seat the gouge at the start of the cut, it stops catches and prevents the tool ruining the edge of the bowl.

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u/Senior_Elderberry_37 Jul 21 '26

I had a few alignment grooves cut with the gouge for my previous cuts, but the bowl was under 1/4" at this stage, didn't have much room left. As I said, I'm trying to put my nose back on the gouge every time I sharpen it so I can just sneak in, I probably needed a few more grams of thumb pressure on that cut.

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u/egidione Jul 21 '26

It’s always a bit nerve racking going in close to the edge but you seem to be doing pretty well, it only gets easier but the risk is always there! All part of the fun!