On Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:05:37 GMT, "NoOne N Particular"
wrote:

Hi all. I am new to turning having just bought a used Delta 14" lathe about
6 weeks ago. I found one in very good shape and paid $275 for it. (a side
note: If I hadn't found that one I had made up my mind to go to Woodcraft
and buy a Rikon mini later that afternoon. Was that fortunate???).

Anyway, I was turning some white oak to make an ornament and was having some
trouble with the skew chisel. I was making a ball shape and if I used the
skew from my left-to-right it worked great. If I turned it around and went
from my right-to-left, it wouldn't cut worth a . . .crap. Actually, it
wouldn't cut at all. When I examed the edge there was a beautiful (and
huge) burr on the edge.

I thought I must have done something wrong so I resharpened the skew. I
have been doing this using a 750 grit diamond stone. Could almost shave
with it. Tried cutting the oak again and the skew almost immediately got
the burr again and wouldn't cut. Unfortunately I didn't find it out quite
in time and wound up with a quite nasty spiral that I hadn't planned on.
(insert several of your favorite expletives here).

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 to sum it all up, should I work on my technique more (I need to do that
anyway), get a new skew with a "standard" profile, regrind the one that I
have, or . . .???

Sorry for being long winded,

Wayne





A good general angle for a skew would be a 30 degree included angle
between the two beveled faces. You'll find that this angle will be
realized almost exactly when the length of the bevel is twice the
thickness of the tool i.e. if the tool is 1/4" then each bevel shoud
be about 1/2".

A 10-15 degree included angle would, IMHO, be way too narrow for a
skew.

If you don't have a grinder(it sounds like you are sharpening by hand)
then inquire of local turning club if anyone can help you regrind the
skew to proper shape - I can't imagine trying to do by hand.