Buying the right tool

[thistle3585]

I am looking at buying a gouge and after having watched the Don Macrostie video and decided a Flexcut 3/4" gouge would be a good place to start. So my question is what is the difference between a sweep and a gouge? Also, how does handle length play a role? Not sure if I should go with a palm, power handle or mallet handle. Any feedback would be appreciated. My primary use for this would be to cut the scroll on an F.

[billhay4]

Flexcut is fine, but I have superb results with the heavier Japanese gouges sold by Japan Woodworkers. They don't have a cranked neck, though, which is helpful.
Bill

[PaulD]

As far as I know, sweep refers to the curvature of a gouge. There are numbers assigned to standard sweeps with the lower number being a flatter curve (larger radius). The other relevant measure is the width of the blade. I'm not aware of a tool called a sweep, although I do have a broom in my shop to perform that function.

pd

[sunburst]

I think the only good way to pick out hand tools, like gouges and chisels, is to have "one of everything" and find out which ones you end up actually using.
Well OK, I know that's not possible, nor even practical, but I think everyone, given enough tool choices, will try various ones for each job until he/she finds the ones he/she prefers and that works best for him/her. Many people with huge collections of hand tools have great looking shop walls, covered with handsome tools, but just have a core handful of tools that they regularly use. Without the benefit of all those tools to choose from, it's hard to find out what your core handful of tools is, and that's what we face when we start to buy tools; choosing a few tools from a catalog rather than from a collection that we can actually use.

About the only thing to do is buy a few and use them. It can seem frustrating with all those choices in all those catalogs, but nobody can predict what your eventual tool preferences will be, including you.

Personally, I don't prefer flex cut tools. When a tool flexes, I feel like I don't have full control. I generally prefer long bent gouges for most jobs, but straight ones work well too. Also, I like inchannel gouges for lots of things, but they are extremely hard to find these days.
My most used large gouge is about 1" wide, long bent, and about a #5 or #7 sweep (I'm not sure).
For smaller gouges and chisels, I prefer palm handles for some things and straight handles for other things.
Shorter handles can feel better for carving things like the scroll because you don't have to move your hand as far in an arc to follow the curve. I think long handles tend to feel better for long cuts, and shorter handles feel better for shorter and/or curved cuts.

Somewhere, I read about where the sweep numbers came from. On a theoretical spiral that goes from a center point all the way out to a flat line, the position on that spiral where the curve of the gouge matches, from flat to infinitely tight curved, is the sweep of the gouge, and the number indicates the position on the spiral and thereby the amount of curve or sweep.

[billhay4]

For incannel gouges, try Japan Woodworker.
Pricey but very good products.
Bill

[Antlurz]

Sometimes, when you have two different chisels that are virtually identical, and look just alike from a few feet away, there will be "just something about it" with one of them that you will find yourself using to the total exclusion of the other.

Picking one from charts or pictures can be hard to do for that reason.

Ron

[Stanley Cox]

If you go the flexcut route, don't forget the small diameter curve of the scroll. I got a 3/8 with a 5or 7 sweep. All my experience ='s 1 mandolin. #2 is on the bench.
Stanley