Mark Palma compares and tests a variety of beading tools
My skew and I have an understanding. I stay on my side of the shop and the skew stays on the other side. We seem to coexist better with some distance between us. Seriously, I can use a skew. I get epic catches, occasionally smooth surfaces and, on extremely lucky days, a bead that looks somewhat respectable. The skew is a superb tool for making beads.
A talented turner with a skew can turn row after row of uniform, perfect beads. I envy these turners and will never be in their league (I have flunked the same skew class three times – my instructor suggests I take up knitting). Making matters worse, I am equally inept at the bedan, another wonderful tool for making beads. So, if I need a bead or two, I use a spindle gouge or a detail gouge and get by. The problem lies when I want a lot of uniform beads, such as for a basket illusion project or similar situation. This is where a beading tool helps someone like me.
Health & Safety
A word on safety
To work properly, all these tools have two sharp points. Store them to protect those points from damage and to protect yourself from the points. They can yield a nasty cut. Do not lay these tools on the lathe bed (even temporarily) as if they fall on your foot you could get hurt. As with any other turning endeavour, wear appropriate eye protection and other PPE. If the manufacturer of your tool offers any instructions, please take the time to actually read them. If something doesn’t seem right, stop to find out why you have that feeling as your set-up may be off.
The traditional beading tool
Companies saw the need of inept turners, such as me, and designed a simple scraper to do the job. This tool has been available for decades and is widely used. The tool is a flat-top scraper where an abrasive stone has been used to make an appropriate recess for half the circumference of the bead in the face of the tool. A relief angle is ground in the tool, just like any scraper. A second version of this tool has half a bead ground into it and each application of the tool makes one side of the bead. The tool is presented flat (or at a slight downward angle) and scrapes a bead into the wood.
On extremely fine-grained hardwoods it creates excellent beads. In other situations, the results may vary. Some symptoms you may experience are torn wood fibres and chatter. If the tool malforms a bead it is difficult to remedy the situation as the tear-out will be below the surface of the bead itself.
Revised beading tool
Over time, a different style of beading tool was developed. This is thicker in profile and has a milled flute on the bottom. The tools are made either from high-speed or M42 steel (depending on brand). Since no beading tool is subject to very heavy use, either should go a long time between sharpening. The face of the tool has a 30-40° bevel (depending on brand). Both the bevel and flute are highly polished, resulting in a very sharp edge at the intersection of the bevel and flute. Two sharp prongs act as locators and allow you to create uniform rows of beads.
The tool is used with the tip above centre and the handle held down below centre. The tool handle, as it is slowly raised into the wood, starts cutting a bead. Only a light hold is necessary and the manufacturers suggest use of a smaller handle. As you advance the tool, you wiggle the handle slightly from side to side to create some side clearance. This prevents the tool from binding or burning the side of the bead next to the one you are making. Watch the inner edge of the flute – when it touches the wood, the bead is complete. Drop the handle to stop cutting and slowly back the tool straight out. The points extend quite a way into the wood so be careful when you back out the tool to avoid a catch.
This tool is often presented wrongly to the work if you do not read the instructions. If you use it flat on centre it will scrape a bead, but will not perform any better than the tools described above. The thick profile makes for a very stable tool that does not chatter in use. Shut off the lathe and adjust the toolrest so that the tool will be approximately 1⁄2in above centre when you have the handle in a comfortable position. With the lathe running, you slowly drop the tool into the wood, lining up a point of the tool with the last bead in the row you were cutting. This acts as your spacer. Practise the motion on a few scraps of wood until you get the tempo for raising the tool as you move the handle slightly side to side to create clearance. Understand that the further you advance the tool, the more important the side-to-side clearance you will need.
It took me a few practice beads to get the motion correct and understand when to stop cutting to make perfectly uniform beads with no tear-out. Dropping the tool into the work is similar to the motion of dropping a parting tool into the work. The side-to-side action and setting up the tool above centre were the areas I had to practise to have some consistency. And consistency is the key if you want perfect repeating beads.
Homemade beading tool
I sense this design predates all of the tools I have discussed above. A friend loaned me this tool, but insisted he needed it back because he liked the way it worked. As we can see, a Stanley screwdriver that clearly saw service as a paint can opener was ground with a rotary tool to achieve a recess for the bead shape. Because the screwdriver has tapers on both sides along the blade, it actually achieves a negative rake angle of sorts. As crude as it looks (I think that is part of the appeal to its owner, although he wouldn’t admit it publicly) he put some time into grinding the bead shape and sharpening the tool to make it adequately perform.
Taking the tools for a test drive
To see how the tools performed, I chose three species of wood – hard maple, cherry and old-growth fir – to see how the tools would work in a spindle orientation. The thinking was that slicing through the side grain cleanly and not tearing out at the tops of the beads would present a more difficult challenge than would be present in, say, end grain of hard maple alone. I assumed that the hard maple would be the easiest test, cherry would represent a more open grain hardwood and fir would be difficult for one or more of the tools.
The lathe was set at 1500rpm and on each spindle I strived for a uniform surface across the entire blank. To the extent they existed, I read and followed each manufacturer’s recommendations for toolrest height and feed. The carbide insert was brand new and the traditional beading tool was honed on a 1000-grit diamond stone before the test. The revised beading tool was polished to 2000 grit, which was similar to the factory finish. The screwdriver was just used as it arrived.
As I only had one size for the traditional beader (it was labelled 10mm), I chose a 1⁄4 in for both the revised beading tool and the carbide insert tool so the beads would be somewhat similar.
Maintaining a beading tool
With a traditional beading tool, do not take it to the grinder. You will change the profile of the tool and your bead will get more squat and wide with each sharpening. Instead, use a diamond stone on the top of the tool and just hone the flat top. A few drops of lapping fluid on the stone will lift metal particles into suspension and make your diamond hone cut more efficiently.
With the revised beading tool we use a similar strategy. With the harder metallurgy of M42 steel I find that these tools will cut beads without any attention. If you see a build-up of sap or debris, wipe the tool with some alcohol to remove the resin. If you need to hone the tool some day (mine have been used for several years and I have not needed to take this step yet) you use a very fine diamond stone (1000 grit or so) and some lapping fluid to just touch the bevel. The flute is set at the factory and we do not touch it in our shops. The only risk with these tools is that if you drop them, you may break off one of the points. If that were to occur, you would need to turn the tool upside down on your grinder and grind it back to recreate the tip. Then you would need to polish the resulting bevel on finer and finer diamond stones to achieve the factory cutting edge.
The carbide insert tools are maintained by taking the insert off the tool and cleaning the insert and the milled pocket on the tool to remove any debris. Then put a drop of oil on the screw and reassemble. Remember that, before you ever insert an Allen wrench into a tool, you dig any debris out of the screw so that the wrench can engage the screw to full depth. You do not want to strip out this screw. When the insert dulls, discard it and purchase another one. Since it is carbide, that should take several years.
Final thoughts
My skew and I can continue to live in distant harmony. The three tools all cut row after row of beautiful beads. The traditional scraper beading tool has served some turners’ needs for many years and has its followers. Just make sure it is sharp. The revised beading tool cuts beads faster than the traditional tool but slightly slower than the carbide insert tool. The new carbide beading inserts are very respectable tools and should end the debate if carbide tools have a place in any shop. Any of the tools are great and can allow you to add beads to any project, while lasting for years. They cut slightly different-shaped beads and vary with how close they can be stacked if that matters to your design. They also vary in the sizes they are available in, so consider that as well.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK PALMA