On Apr 16, 2014, at 9:18 PM, leeburk@a... wrote:

> 
> I have some carbide tipped turning tools recently acquired from Ebay. How do I
put an edge on those? Especially the gouges? Sure diamond may work if one has
some diamonds laying around, but haven't I heard in the ancient past that
sometimes something softer can be used to cut something harder? Maybe I'm
thinking of Rock, Paper, Scissors, I dunno. You grizzled old engineers out
there, bestow your wisdom.
> Lee

Get thee a silicon carbide grinding wheel in a fine grit. The wheels are green
in color. Then get thee a good sharpening jig made for sharpening turning tools,
particularly gouges. Pay more than $100 for this jig. There are cheaper jigs,
but after you buy one and find that they don't work well, you will buy a good
one anyway.

Can you sharpen carbide turning tools without a jig? Of course. After you have
worn them out because you need to keep sharpening them because they were not
properly sharpened in the first place, and then you buy new ones. By then you
will have gained the skills necessary to sharpen them by hand. I strongly
recommend the good jig.

Do you need carbide turning tools? As you will learn, the answer is no. But we
all have to go through the process. Ask yourself how much actual time you will
spend turning. Few of us really do a lot of turning. I have several of the
carbide tools, and the sharpening stuff. And now that I know the name of this
game, I would NOT EVER buy another carbide tool. But like I said, everybody has
to go through this to learn that they don't need them. The only exception is the
professional bowl turner. He needs them. We don't.

But hey! What do I know?