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






I would take a look at Alan Lacers video on the skew. He has a lot of
good information and I think he uses 1 1/2 times the thickness of the
skew for a bevel, but I could be wrong.
The other think I like is he recommends using a dead center to drive
your work. Tighten up on the tail stock for more drive. If you have a
catch the piece will just stop. Removed all the fear out of using a
skew. I understand he has a second DVD on projects using the skew, but
I have not seen it. He also has a web site you can check out.

Bruce