• Hand tools are used when turning wood into spindles.Woodman at work image by CJD from Fotolia.com
  
  Hand tools are essential when turning wood. Each tool has a specific purpose and is available in a variety of cuts and styles to give greater versatility to the woodworker. Beginning woodworkers may only work with one or two different hand tools to start, but as their abilities increase so do their options.
  
  

Scrapers

• Scrapers do a lot of the grunt work in woodworking. They are used to cut hard, dense wood, finish the interior of bowls and make small corrections to the shape of a piece. There are shear and negative rake scrapers as well as a variety of specialized scrapers. Specialized scrapers, such as box scrapers, deep hollow tools, chatter tools and captive ring tools are used to make square edges, beading, create dovetails, make grooves and do hollowing work.
  
  

Gouges

• Gouges are one of the first tools a woodworker uses. The roughing gouge, a spindle tool, is used to reduce the wood piece to a round shape while it is mounted between centers. It is u-shaped and has a squared shoulder. Deep-fluted gouges are used when making bowls. They have longer handles and blades and come in three different grinds—traditional, asymmetrical and fingernail. Shallow fluted gouges are used for cutting beads and coves and also come in three grinds—factory, severe bevel and swept back. The type of grind determines the shape and depth cut from the material.
  
  

Skew Chisels

• Skew chisels are used for peeling and planning cuts. This tool is useful for beginning woodworkers because it allows for clean up of pieces that are not smooth. Skew chisels are available in three types—oval stock, regular stock and straight edge. Regular skews offer more stability and a smoother cut, according to the Woodcentral website.
  
  

Parting

• Woodworkers use parting tools to give dimension to pieces, turn beads and to separate a piece of wood. The most common types of parting tools are standard, beading, diamond, fluted and a tapered and fluted model. The Woodworkers Institute’s magazine says parting tools are often used to make filet cuts on spindled pieces or spigots in the chunking method.
  
  

Measurement

• Measurement tools are not essential for woodworking, but allow the turner to be more precise and create multiple pieces that are the same size. Many of the tools are similar to what someone would use in a geometry class. Marking gauges, squares and compasses are used for metric and standard measurements. The book “Fundamentals of Woodworking” suggests using calipers, from vernier to inside spring, to measure the thickness of a turned item.