Tool type

Vintage gouges

Chisels with a curved blade. Firmer gouges are woodworkers' tools, ground out-cannel with the bevel outside the curve or in-cannel with it inside, for cutting hollows and paring curved ends to fit. Carving gouges come in many sweeps, numbered in the Sheffield list from the nearly flat No. 3 to the semicircular No. 9, with U-shaped 10s and 11s beyond. Pfeil's Swiss system runs from 1 to 11 with the width in millimetres after a slash, so a 7/14 is a No. 7 that's 14 mm wide. Most makers stamp the sweep number on the shank, but old tools get reground, so judge the shape as well as the number.

3 models we cover.