"NoOne N Particular" wrote in message
...

The skew is one from a six piece set that I got from Grizzly a while back
when I thought I would be getting a lathe, but it didn't work out then.
It is a HSS steel oval skew. I have been reading some books and watching
some videos, but none of them use an oval skew. I have noticed that my
skew has a rather sharp bevel compared to the pictures/videos that I have
seen. Most seem to have a bevel of about 25-30 deg, but this one seems
more like about 10-15 deg. It is closer to a knife edge.


So your included angle is too acute, and you're turning the steel? I
suppose that's possible, even with brittle HSS alloys, but if you make the
entry cut with the bisected angle nearly perpendicular to the grain and then
seek a bevel as you sweep into the cut, should work anyway. I keep a nearly
2:1 bevel (single) on my chisel and it does red oak pretty well. Get too
broad an included angle with the skew and it'll have a tendency to run back
at you. Most I see have a bevel to thickness ratio of about 1:1.2 for an
included of around 50 degrees.

Certainly wouldn't hurt much to try that vicinity.