Guide to the Roughing Gouge.
by Alan Holtham

The first tool that the beginner to woodturning is most likely to come into contact with is the roughing gouge. These are available in a range of shapes and sizes, but by far the most popular is the deep fluted section gouge, Picture 1.
As the name suggests, roughing gouges are used to reduce square spindle blanks to a cylinder, and then remove the bulk of the waste prior to detailed shaping with spindle gouges. This is called roughing out. They are never used for any sort of faceplate work. For most work the ¾” section gouge is a good general workhorse, Picture 2, and is usually supplied in a beginners set. This will handle all but the biggest of blanks, the larger 1 ½” gouge is only necessary for really heavy section material.
Before you can use the gouge it must be sharpened correctly. The exact angle is not critical, with experience you eventually determine your own angle based on your stance at the lathe. As a general rule though the tool needs to be sharpened square across with a single bevel at approx. 45°, Picture 3. Many tools are supplied from the manufacturer with a bevel that is far tool long for comfortable working, Picture 4, so you will have to adjust this on the grinder, before you can use it properly.
Sharpening is quite straightforward and only requires a good quality bench grinder, preferably with a white wheel of at least 6” diameter. Sharpening will be covered in detail in a later tutorial, but the roughing gouge is actually one of the easiest to sharpen. Simply rest the tool well up on the revolving stone, then draw it back gently until sparks start appearing over the top edge of the tool, Picture 5.

At this point the bevel is in full contact with the stone and you then just roll the tool from side to side, but keeping it perfectly in line with the stone. A few light passes is all that is needed to restore a dull edge, you do not need to spend a lot of time on the grinder.
A typical application for the roughing gouge is shown in Picture 6.

A block of 2 ½” square ash is mounted between centres, the toolrest adjusted so that it clears the spinning corners. Try this by hand before you switch the lathe on. A block of this size would normally be turned at about 2000 rpm, but for the roughing out stage it is often better to drop the speed a little until the block is down to a cylinder.

A typical application for the roughing gouge is shown in Picture 6. A block of 2 ½” square ash is mounted between centres, the toolrest adjusted so that it clears the spinning corners. Try this by hand before you switch the lathe on. A block of this size would normally be turned at about 2000 rpm, but for the roughing out stage it is often better to drop the speed a little until the block is down to a cylinder.
Do make certain that the toolrest is secure in the banjo and locked tightly on the bed. The process of roughing out generates a lot of vibration and it is important that nothing works loose. You do not want the toolrest twisting into the spinning workpiece whilst it still has corners on!
With the blank spinning, approach it carefully with the tool remembering that the corners are only visible as ghost images, they are almost invisible. For the tool to cut properly it is important that the bevel rubs on the wood, so it must be held with the handle well down. The only snag with roughing out is that initially there is only very intermittent contact with the spinning corners, so it is difficult to feel the bevel rubbing. If you are unsure, start with the tool too high, i.e. handle verry well down, and then gently draw it back towards you until it starts to cut.
For the initial cuts the tool needs to be pointing slightly in the direction of travel, and rolled on its side slightly so the flute is pointing that way too, Picture 7. A right handed person will normally start at the right hand end of a block and work to the right. So start about 1” in from the end, and move the tool both in and sideways to the right for the first cut, Picture 8. Notice the angle and orientation of the tool.

Then come back and start another 1” in, working down to finish with a 2” long cut, Picture 9.
Working off the end of the blank this way is important for two reasons. Firstly working ‘downhill’ gives you much better control on the tool, but more importantly it is much safer. If you work onto the end there is always a danger that you split off a whole length of corner, which can fly up at you, Picture 10. Working off the end in stages prevents this or at least minimises the length of the corner that can fly off.
Work off to the right in stages until you are about ¾ of the way along the blank and then turn the gouge round to work off the left-hand end, Picture 11.

Once the corners have gone, make a couple of passes along the length of the blank using your finger on the toolrest as a guide, Picture 12. This should leave you a perfectly parallel cylinder.
Do be aware that removing the corners quickly opens up a big gap between the rest and the work which can be dangerous, Picture 13, so stop the lathe and move the toolrest in to close up the gap.
With the blank perfectly round you can start to remove the waste to form your profile. This is a good chance to experiment with different angles of presentation to see how it affects the tool performance. Using the tool square to the work presents a big cutting edge, Picture 14, which removes waste quickly but does leave a poor quality finish.

Swinging the handle up and pointing the tool in the direction of travel, as well as rolling it on its side, produces more bevel contact and turns the cutting edge at an angle to the work, Picture 15. The result is a slicing action, albeit with a much narrower cut, but look how much better the finish is straight off the tool.
So you can roll and angle the tool to utilise most of the cutting edge and to control both the speed of stock removal and the quality of finish. How you hold it to achieve these cuts is a matter of personal choice. An overhand grip, Picture 16, allows you to use your hand to deflect the chippings away from your face, but it does restrict visibility of the cutting edge. It is usually used for the initial roughing when you are knocking the corners off and producing a stream of very small chippings that can be quite painful to the face. The more conventional top grip, Picture 17, gives much better visibility but fine control of the tool is still a bit restricted.

The most comfortable grip is shown in Picture 18, holding the tool lightly, between fore finger and thumb from the underneath. If you are using the tool properly you do not need massive force to control it, and this very gentle grip allows you to make precise movements of the tool to vary the cut. It takes a littler time to perfect but as your confidence improves with practice you will relax and find this quite simple.
A variation on the overhand grip is useful to master when you are turning very thin section material. This tends to whip and vibrate as the corners are removed. Controlling the tool with your thumb and using the rest of the hand wrapped round the wood acts as a very efficient steady, Picture 19, but don’t press hard or you will burn your hand.