Yep, I never touch the dang thing except to use it as a scraper. The old
heart can't deal with the excitement of a 'scew catch', of which I've had
one or two too many :(

Tom

"Owen Lawrence" wrote in message
...

"Canchippy" wrote in message
oups.com...
Tom Nie wrote:
I, for one, have problems using the skew.

Yeah welcome to the club Tom!
But never fear there is a solution. First the skew must be razor sharp
and then the secret is always cut in the top 1/3rd of the perimeter of
the piece. That means raising the tool rest and using the heel of the
skew at a 45* angle to the axis. Hard to describe. If you need
clarification I can send you a sketch via email. I read this gem piece
of info somewhere on the 'net about a year ago and since then haven't
had 1 catch. I am even confident enough to use the skew point down now
but it is still a bit of a tense few minutes!
Peter
Visit my site at:
http://www.oldtoolsshop.com/Galoots/pHyde/

What you describe sounds like planing. Imagine that your hands and the
tool rest are the low angle plane and the skew chisel is the plane iron.
You want to be peeling off the wood by slicing almost tangent to the
surface. When it's going good you get long streamers of wood pouring off
like a dream.

Then it catches and the nightmare begins. You wake up fast.

- Owen -