The gouges and carpentry chisels may look something very similar, even from the same family. But however much they resemble, they are not the same. We advance that they are part of every carpentry tools box and they are basic for the common wood works. So pay attention to this post.
Gouges: the carpenter’s brush
If we had to carve a David of Michelangelo’s in wood, we would use a gouge. It is not strange that there are different types of gouge, almost as many brushes for painters.
The gouges are formed by a handle of wood, plastic or resin and a sheet of steel. With the help of a mallet, the carpenter strikes the handle and the tip of the blade makes the cut. It requires some skill, experience and delicacy. A blow too strong or too fast can chip the wood or pierce it more than we want.
Another characteristic is the wide variety of gouges for the carving of wood: ordinary point, half cane, cannons, flat, triangular … are just some of the many profiles that have been used for centuries. In this infographic you will find some of the most common gouge profiles.
Gouges types of woodworking:
Here we give you some tips that will help you decide which gouges use:
- Straight-point gouges are the most common. They are used to make straight cuts and, unlike the chisel, the tip of the blade is thinner and may have two bevels (the chisel always has one). This makes it easier to sink into the wood. In this way, they are very useful for surface polishing or raising layers of wood. It would be equivalent to the “multipurpose gouge”.
- The bent gouge has a curved profile and it is also very used. It is very useful for making channels or rounded finishes in the wood.
- The bowl gouges have a U-profile more marked than the bent gouges. They are very used to raise larger layers of wood. In the wood carving is usually used at the beginning of the work because it allows extracting the larger pieces and approaching more quickly to the core of the wood.
- The flat gouges have an arrow shape with a tip end. Therefore, they are used to perform jobs that require precision and detail.
- Triangular or V-shaped gouges are widely used. They are characterized by their triangle-shaped tip. There are several versions, but the frequent ones – and those that we recommend you – are those that have angles ranging from 45º to 90º.
The gouges mentioned below are a complement to those cited above for certain works:
- The curved gouges allow entering interior spaces, where a flat sheet would not have access.
- Fish tail gouges are a hybrid, an important part of the blade is straight and the end is curved. Like the previous one, this allows him to split in interior concave zones with greater precision and depth.
- The macaroni gouge is different from the others by its U-shaped section with sharp corners, as shown in the infographics. They are used to make channels in the wood where we need a straight cut, for example, to insert a rectangular strip.
- The dog leg gouge is much rarer. At the end it has an angle that allows the blade to be inserted in much smaller spaces. In the opposite case, where the profile of the sheet is pointing upwards, allows rounding of contours.
- Finally, the fluteroni gouge has three working edges, the sides are forged at a slight angle to the bottom creating a small radius on each side of the cutting edge. It is used for removing background material in relief carving.
After see the variety of gouges, we recommend you the first 5 to begin with the carpentry. We hope you like it and thanks for your visit!
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