HSS · 8 tools · teak
IMOTECHOM MTA0001A, 8-piece HSS set
The only listing on this shelf to publish a blade length — six point three inches, which is how much tool there is to regrind.
Every figure below names its source. Each one is a manufacturer
specification read off the listing itself. The judgments are ours.
Six point three inches of blade
A hundred and sixty millimeters, published, and the only blade length on either
half of this shelf.
It matters because a turning tool is consumed by sharpening. Every grind takes
metal off the end, and 160 mm (6.30 in) of blade is perhaps ten years of regrinding before
the flute runs into the tang.
It also sets reach. A short blade cannot get to the bottom of a deep bowl
without the handle fouling the rim.
On a set at this price, it is the figure that says how long the set lasts.
Two roughing gouges, one spindle gouge, two skews, two scrapers, a parting tool.
That is a spindle turner’s kit, and it is a good one — two scrapers, spear point
and round nose, is more than most sets give.
A bowl is hollowed with a bowl gouge: deeper flute, wings swept back, so it cuts
across the grain on the inside of a curve. A spindle gouge used for that is the
classic route to a catch.
The Hurricane set on this shelf includes a 1/2 inch bowl gouge. The published
1/2 inch bowl gouge on this shelf is sold on its own for exactly this gap.
And no grade, and no hardness
High-speed steel, stated to outlast high carbon steel. Which is true, and is the
family rather than the steel.
The Hurricane set beside it publishes M2 and HRC 56-63.
The published bowl gouge and Holzstar set on the European half of this shelf both
say HSS and stop, and both of their pages make the same argument this listing
makes: HSS rather than carbon steel, so the edge survives a heating cut.
Two schools, and they are not the same hobby
A traditional turning tool is ground steel on a long handle. It is presented to
the wood at an angle so the bevel rubs and the edge slices, which leaves a
surface that needs almost no sanding — and it has to be sharpened, which means a
grinder, a jig and a skill.
A carbide tool is a square or round plate screwed to a bar. It is held flat and
scrapes. It never needs grinding: when an edge dulls, the plate is rotated to the
next corner and eventually replaced.
The published pages on this shelf put both sides of it. The carbide set’s page:
removes the grinder and the sharpening jig from a beginner’s shopping list — and
carbide scrapes where a gouge slices, so the surface off the tool needs more
sanding. That is the whole choice.
Availability
Read on the day this page was built: $160 at the American Amazon shop.
Read from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and price both move without notice.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-10-07. The live price is at the top of the page.
