For my first attempts at left-hand turning I had to use a few small, ancient sculptor's chisels that I hadn't used for carving in a long time due to various defects. Although this worked very well, the tarnished and sometimes even rusty irons with their dirty and worn handles, which were also quite short for turning, of course could not meet my aesthetic requirements in the long term.
So of the chisels that had proven most useful so far, I removed the old handles, removed any rust, polished the tool blades clean, and reshaped and sharpened the cutting edges. In order to make the chisels look quite “professional”, I turned ash wood handles and fitted them with a brass ferrule based on the model from the English brand “Robert Sorby” and “hidden” the center punch impression with a brass decorative nail. This is how a roughing and a shaping gouge (sculptor's chisel stitch 6, 10mm and 5mm respectively) were created and a small chisel was created from a ball iron (stich 1, 5mm). An engraver's graver, after grinding the cutting edge, finally resulted in a kind of oval chisel, my absolute favorite tool I sometimes “borrow” them for “normal” wood turning. I had by far the most grinding work when making a narrow parting tool, because I couldn’t find a more suitable blank than an old kitchen knife. These five tools have remained my most important ones to this day, and only in rare cases In exceptional cases I add other chisels.