On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 18:01:03 GMT, "Lyndell Thompson"
wrote:

Hello, I am a newbie here but not new to NG.

You might do better in rec.crafts.woodturning.

I am trying to sharpen a
woodturning skew (looks like a chisel ground @ 45 degree angle or so. MFG.
says hollow grinding not suitable for this tool.

Just hollow grind it, but on a large slow wheel (about 10" or so) and
water cooled. So long as it's a big wheel, then the hollow is
negligible.

I'd hate to try and grind a skew on the side of any wheel. They're
tricky things to hold when you're grinding them, because of the skewed
angle and the resultant offset. To do one you really need a big wheel
and a nice wide toolrest. If you're doing gouges too, a wide wheel is a
good help in getting a good shape to the gouge.

I'm also unimpressed with grinding on the sides of wheels. I'll
cheerfully do it on a slow water wheel, but never on a 3000 rpm bench
grinder. The main problem is that the sides of a wheel just aren't flat
- too many people have been sharpening their tools there before and you
certainly don't want to start dressing the stone on the side!

Woodturning tools are different from bench chisels. They're HSS so
they'll never take such a fine edge anyway and they're for turning so
they don't even need it. A big 10" water cooled wheel is cheap (£100)
from the many low-end Chinese makers and will work fine for sharpening
them. For initial shaping of woodturning tools, I just use a flap disk
in an angle grinder!