CARP bowl gouge 16 mm
CARP bowl gouge 16 mm
A bowl gouge is used to make bowls, or other shapes, in cross timbers. Carp bowl gouges are made of round steel. The flute of the gouge is milled and parabolically shaped. That, combined with the fingernail profile, makes the bowl gouge an extremely versatile tool. The sharpening angle is about 55 degrees. CARP bowl gouges come in 10, 13 and 16 mm. The handle of European beech is 32 cm long.
Handle
A handle for a woodturning tool is sometimes long and sometimes short. Depending on the function of the tool. A bowl gouge or roughing gouge needs a long handle, a profile gouge needs to be manoeuvrable, so a short handle is handy. Furthermore, it is useful to easily recognise the handles when they are hanging in the rack.
CARP tools
Carp's chisels are made of hardened HSS M2 steel. They are forged and/or milled, then hardened to 63-64 HRC, then ground and polished.
Harden
How good a chisel is depends largely on the hardness and toughness of the steel. So a lot of attention is given to hardening chisels. This is a lengthy process. It starts with heating the steel. This is done in absolute vacuum. Then the chisels are hardened in 3 steps, before undergoing another process of heating and cooling. Here, temperatures of up to -185 degrees are reached (in liquid nitrogen). Quality is strictly monitored. Between 5 and 10% of each batch of chisels is tested for hardness and toughness.