Crown242EW 1/2" ELLSWORTH SIGNATURE GOUGE

All of the Ellsworth Sig gouges are excellent tools. I can do an entire bowl from start to finish with one of these if I had to. But I don't because I also use his other sized gouges, :-) Excellent sharpening qualities. I really like the HSS of these tools and they can be very sharp if you take a few minutes to learn the process. These blow carbide away (e tools and s carbide tools don't come close) if sharpened properly. Just love em!

this is an old standby for me as a turner. wore the first one out

I really love this gouge. I use it more than any other gouge I have. I use it for almost everything. Great for bowl turning, and a lot of other turning also. If you'll be doing bowls, this is the gouge for you. Instructions came with it, and its worth learning the special cuts you can make with it.

Great gouge love it good quality

Longest blade and handle available in a bowl gouge that I know of. I'm in my 3rd and have never had one fall apart. Best I can find for deep hollow form turning.

must have for turning

This is my second Ellsworth. It's built like a tank and it's my primary tool.

I've been using a Henry Taylor Ellsworth gouge, in M2 HSS for a couple of years, and recently bought one from Crown in powder metal. I won't be able to comment specifically on the Crown tool, but expect it to handle about the same as the M2 tool, but hold an edge longer between touch-ups, and thus to last considerably longer. Remember that, all else being equal, an edge that stays sharp 2X as long, translates to a tool which lasts 2X as long. This tool is expected to hold an edge 2-3X as long as Taylor M2 HSS tool, so the 1.5X difference in price should make the Crown PM tool a bargain.The Ellsworth gouges come with a swept back, "fingernail" grind which I think is what is also called an Irish grind. It has a relatively large, non-aggressive angle at the tip (I'd have to check, but I think it's 50 degrees), with the sides ground back about as far as they can be, forming long, low-angle cutting edges along the sides. This gouge can remove large amounts of material quickly, yet is also capable of variety of fine finishing cuts, and those long edges are particularly well suited to shear scraping. About the only real weakness of this gouge is that its rather large tip angle makes starting a cut at the edge of a bowl somewhat more difficult than for a steeper grind, but then it can maintain bevel contact all the way from the rim to the center of a typical bowl, a feat not usually possible with a pointier grind. This gouge really is a great all-around bowl gouge.Some might think that this would be a difficult gouge to keep sharp by hand, and generally speaking, it is. Fortunately any of several commercially available jigs will replicate the Ellsworth grind perfectly. David Ellsworth sells his own dedicated jig, and Oneway sells their Wolverine system, with the Vari-Grind holder, which is what I use. There's another similar jig called Tru-Grind, sold by Woodcut, which must also work well. It's not quite as simple as letting the jig make all the decisions and automatically getting the right grind, but with care and some understanding of what is to be accomplished, the Wolverine and presumably Ellsworth's own jig help greatly to produce excellent results. When I bought the powder metal version of this gouge from Crown, I was pleased to find that the grind I had been maintaining on my Taylor tool was IDENTICAL to that on the new tool.Some say that this tool is best for intermediate and advanced turners, and there may be some truth to that, especially regarding sharpening. But if you can handle that, which is NOT too difficult with a jig, this gouge is an excellent choice for turners at any level. In fact, since it is a bit like a sportscar in the woodturning world, once you have it mastered, it will quickly become your favorite gouge. It could become your favorite woodturning companion!I think this is among the very best bowl gouges available today, and would recommend it to anybody with a sincere interest in woodturning.