Hulot, père "L'Art du tourneur mécanicien" 1775
I've always been puzzled why most of the turning tools listed in classic books on turning (published in the 17th - 19th centuries) are what we would now call scraping tools. One possible rationale is that scrapers are a lot easier to make than forged tools like gouges.
As I found myself diving more deeply into the literature, I discovered a couple of things. Early tool catalogs that show turning tools don't show a lot of scrapers.
They show gouges - as you would expect. Pre-1850s tool catalogs show gouges and instructional books from that era show a few gouges along with pages of scrapers. By the second half of the 19th century, this situation changes. Perhaps the tools were hard to make but I am unpersuaded that this is the only reason for the changing landscape.
For a more satisfying answer, let's look at the turning sections in Mechanick Exercises by Joseph Moxon, published in 1680. I have not been able to figure out where Moxon took his pictures from or if they are original. As in the joinery section, the book's turning chapter features what is considered the first set of instructions. Moxon very clearly states that you use gouges when turning softwood. But it gets interesting when Moxon lists the softwoods: "The softwood turners use is commonly either Maple, Alder, Birch, Beach, Elm, Oak, Fir and &c. and for some particular purposes each of these sorts are best."
If you have ever worked Elm or Oak, you will readily agree they are not "softwoods." Did Moxon make a mistake? No. He is differentiating between the woods that are normally used for turning furniture. The woods turners use for making everything from bowls to banisters, and differentiating it from the super hardwoods -ivory, ebony and boxwood among them. These were materials that were used for ornamental turning and by rich people who turned as a hobby. If you are a professional 17th century turner, you were not buying expensive instructional books on turning; you were using your funds to buy gouges and hook tools so that you would be able to make 300 banisters. On the other hand, if you were a wealthy person interested in decorative arts, you might decide to take up turning - and a book on how to turn ivory and other exotic materials might come in handy. Using gouges and other typical tools on ivory, especially in a human-powered lathe, would not really work, since the material is much too hard. But scrapers will work, and they would give you a good finish that could easily be polished up.
This also explains to me why so many of the fancy books by Plumier, Hulot, or Bergeron, devote so much space to scrapers and exotic fixtures for ornamental turning. None of these books are really about the bog-standard turning that professionals did at the time and still do, the standard work for architectural woodworking.
The next question is, When did amateurs start doing regular work and stop doing ornamental turning? That is a different story
that has to do a lot with the rise of the middle-class in the 19th century. The treadle lathe played its part in that story, which we should save for another time.
All the images in this blog post come from Hulot's 1775 "L'Art du tourneur mécanicien." Most of the early books on turning, including Moxon and earlier works, show images of turning tools, but Hulot is the most comprehensive. All of the books basically show one or two gouges. In the image above, we see the tools for "softwoods"; all the later images are for various scrapers for hard materials, including metal. In the last image, we also have chasing tools for making threads on ivory, hardwood, and soft metals (internal and external, coarse and fine). Getting back to the first page for softwoods, the familiar gouge and skew are shown, although you don't have the variety of roughing, bowl, etc, and other gouges that we are familiar with nowadays. These tools hadn't been invented yet. The hook tools shown on the bottom left of the page were common at the time, and very useful. Moxon describes them as the first tool you would use for roughing out stock. He also hints that hook tools basically do the same thing as gouges but they were harder to use. Hook tools are easy to make, but the flex in the hook makes them a little tricky to handle, and therefore potentially dangerous. (I do not think any company currently makes them today.) All tools, especially lathe tools, get a lot of wear and tear in actual use, and the steel of the time was expensive. Sharpening stones of the time were soft and slow acting, and while a larger shop might have a grindstone, it was cumbersome and time consuming to grind and then hone the tools. Hook tools are far easier to make and keep sharp than gouges, which is why they were more popular (until steel became less expensive and sharpening easier). But only for "soft woods."
The other pages show tools for drilling, internal turning, more scrapers and thread chases. These were used on all materials, especially very hard materials. Except for the thread chasing tools, the average scrapers were very easy to make and easily sharpened.
Hulot, père "L'Art du tourneur mécanicien" 1775 Hulot, père "L'Art du tourneur mécanicien" 1775 Hulot, père "L'Art du tourneur mécanicien" 1775
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03/18/2026 Joe Maday
For more information on ornamental turning Look up and contact David Lindow at The Plumier Foundation. Visit his site at Plumier.org...amazing!
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03/18/2026 Wm r Robertson
When we look at these old books I wonder if the royals, the kings, queens. Princes and princesses had their court turners prepare their materials? So they started with nice round stock and got right to the fun part of turning.
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