You Need These Carbide Tipped Chisels
If you’ve never tried wood turning, you should. Woodturning projects are so different from other types of woodworking projects. It’s an easy and relatively quick way to be creative. And to be honest, it’s oddly satisfying to create a rounded shape from a square piece of wood.
Once you make the leap and purchase your lathe and turning gear, you’ll approach a heavily debated crossroads. Most traditionalists recommend buying conventional turning chisels and a sharpener, but maintaining sharp tools will take a lot of time. As an alternative, you can purchase carbide tipped wood turning chisels, where the tips can be easily rotated or replaced.
Before choosing, you’ll need to consider a few things. How often will you be turning, and how big a budget do you have for turning tools and sharpeners? I chose to begin with carbide tip tools, then evolved into a hybrid tool user. Now, with my nearly 15-year-old carbide tipped tools showing their age, I picked up a new set of Easy Wood Turning Tools to try.
What Are Easy Wood Turning Tools?
The Easy Wood Tools three-piece combination set features full-sized carbide woodturning lathe tools — a rougher, finisher and detailer. The tools come with 16-inch-long, easy-grip hardwood maple handles. The sturdy half-inch stainless steel tool bars make the overall length more than two feet for optimum turning control.
The tools come loaded with specialty designed, high quality carbide cutting tips that can be swapped out with other Easy Wood Tools carbide cutters. The tools are slightly longer than my original carbide tools, and the maple handles feel comfy and secure in the hand.
How We Tested Them
We turned a couple of rolling pins out of hard maple with the Easy Wood turning tool set. We also made a couple of small vessels and some trinkets out of scrap wood we had lying around the shop.
I wanted to test how well the tools retained their sharpness after turning the dense maple; their agility and user-friendliness; and how well they reshaped square blocks compared to traditional roughing gouges.
The carbide cutters arrived razor sharp and ready for action. Even after making the multiple hard maple rolling pins, the Easy Wood Tools carbide cutters retained their edge. They’ll last for another few turning sessions, at which point a quick rotation of the cutter will suffice.
The rougher, with its radiused-square cutter, became the dullest of the group. Traditionally, roughing gouges, with their beveled, fluted cutters, are better at quickly turning square forms into rough cylinders. The Easy Wood Tools rougher accomplished this task on all the turned pieces, though at a slower pace and more delicately than I was used to.
There’s no question the Easy Wood turning tools are some of the finest I’ve used, and they’re not cheap. They’re incredibly sturdy, solid and well-made, so much so that turning anything small between the lathe’s spindles almost feels bulky. But I’d rather have a single set of high-quality tools for any wood turning project versus multiple sets, or a set that can only be used for small projects.
I really like how the Easy Wood Tools tool bars are square rather than radiused. With a square tool bar, you can more easily control the cutting edge since the flat edge rests perfectly on the tool rest of the lathe. This allows for a more uniform offering of the cutting tip with less exertion by the operator.
Pros
- No sharpening required;
- Well constructed;
- Sturdy enough for large projects;
- Different styles of carbide cutters available;
- Durable cutters;
- Square tool bar.
Cons
- Rather large for turning small projects;
- Rougher not as able as its traditional counterpart;
- Expensive.
FAQ
Q: Are there smaller versions of these turning tools available from Easy Wood?
A: Yes. Carbide cutting tools from Easy Wood come in five sizes and styles.
Q: Are the Easy Wood carbide cutting tools only available in the set of three, or can you buy them individually?
A: The Easy Wood tools can be purchased separately.
What Others Had to Say
J D, a verified Amazon purchaser, left a heart-warming five star review, writing: “Bought these for my dad. He was so happy, he had tears in his eyes. Wish I had given them to dad years ago…” And Jake, another pleased Amazon reviewer, was short and sweet: “These are amazing tools. Expensive but worth it!”
Final Verdict
If you’re in the market for a high quality, well-made set of carbide turning tools, the Easy Wood Tools are the ones for you. They’re strong, stable, sharp and easy to use. Plus, you can spend more time working on actual projects rather than sharpening your tools.
Where to Buy
The full line of Easy Wood Turning Tools, including this three-piece set, are available from Amazon.com.
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