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Cutting Coves (Concaves)
This is the most difficult single cut to mas-
ter - but one of the most important in good
wood turning. First, use pencil marks to
indicate the edges. Then, rough it out - to
within about 1/8-in. of the desired finish
surface - by scraping with the gouge or
round nose chisel. If the cove is to be very
wide, sizing cuts can be made to plot the
roughing out. Once it is roughed out, the
cove can be finished in two cuts - one
from each side to the bottom center.
At the start of either cut, gouge is held
with handle high and the two sides of
blade held between the thumb and fore-
finger of tool-rest hand, just behind the
bevel.Position the fingers ready to roll the
blade into cove. Hold blade so that bevel
is at a 90° angle to the work axis, with
point touching the pencil line and pointed
into work axis.
From this start, depress point slightly to
start cut, then continue to move point
down in an arc toward the bottom center
of cove-at the same time rolling chisel uni-
formly so that, at the end of the cut, it will
be flat at bottom of the cove. The object is
to keep the extreme point of gouge doing
the cutting from start to finish. Reverse
movements to cut the opposite side.
Coves also can be scraped to finish,
using the round nose chisel or a rattail file
- but these methods do not generally pro-
duce perfectly curved coves.
Making Long Convex Cuts
First turn work down to approximate size,
using sizing cuts (as required) to deter-
mine various diameters. Finish cut can
then be made with either skew or gouge.
If the skew is used, the principles of the
operation are the same as those
employed in cutting a bead - except that
curve is longer and may be irregular. Use
the extreme heel throughout - start at
longer end of curve (if curve is irregular)
and progress toward steeper end. If
gouge is used, make cut in the same
direction. Start with the handle well back
of point-swinging handle in the direction of
tool travel to overtake the point, if neces-
sary, when the steep part of the curve is
reached. Object is to keep extreme point
during the cutting throughout - with bevel
as tangent to curve as possible.
Pencil Marks
1
234
Cutting Coves
Chisel Inclined
in Direction of Cut