On Sat, 19 May 2007 22:36:53 -0700, charlieb
wrote:

Leo Lichtman wrote:

If a 20 degree angle does the trick when you are holding a
chisel, the wood won't know the difference if you take away everything but
the edge and substitute a skew.

As a rule, using a narrower angle results
in a sharper cutting edge. The only down side is that the edge is not as
durable--wears faster and breaks easier.

"Faster" and "easier" are relative terms. "Wear" should be a
function
of the feet per minute the edge experiences. Smaller diameter,
fewer
feet per minute, less wear, longer "edge life". As for breaking the
edge
- Ie - knocking off a chunk of it - is that really likely?

Whether or not it is likely is going to be a function of how hard the
edge is- as a rule of thumb, the harder steel gets, the more brittle
it becomes. If the material is malleable enough, it will not chip
off, but you do risk folding it. The skew should already be tempered
enough to keep it from snapping off on you.

The other concern is heat- a thinner edge will friction heat much more
quickly than one with more material behind it. While it is not likely
to be much of a problem, it is possible to get the end of a tool tip
hot enough to draw the temper from a chisel when turning- making the
angle more acute makes this more likely. I've got a few things
cherry-red when turning, but they were not suitable cutting materials
(EMT comes to mind) that I've used to "prototype" different things
before spending time making them out of good steel, and I was really
hogging with them.

Those two things aside, I would not hesitate to try this out if I
needed a skew that could do what you are describing. The difference
in material is an issue, but probably not enough to outweigh the
benefits of having the right tool for the job. Another option to
consider is dedicating a couple of skews to this task, and grinding
past the double bevel and starting fresh with a single bevel- this
would let you get in those tight corners without making the angle
steeper, but you would need two skews (a right hand and a left hand)
to do the job. A quick search will turn up these profiles easily.

Another thing to keep in mind is that very little in the world is
truly revolutionary- while we may now have gouges made of M2 and
powdered metal, the odds that the tools have been radically redesigned
to take advantage of the new material specs is fairly low. For most
applications, engineering and design is built off what has come before
it, and not that much effort is expended in pushing the newer
materials to their limits (especially in something as apparently
simple as a gouge or skew) They will stress-test the new product to
make sure it does not fail in normal use, but it's unlikely any of the
manufacturers did much as far as varying angles goes- especially
considering that the end product will be ground over and over by the
user. What may be pushing the limits for an old carbon steel gouge is
likely to be nothing to a tool steel.

Give it a try- the worst thing that could happen is that you lose a
piece, and need to regrind your skew. I would not seriously worry
about a chunk of sharp metal flying off at you unless you hit a bit of
hardened steel embedded in the wood- and you'd still need to worry
about that with a regular grind on the tool. Most likely failure is
that it will dull quickly or the cutting edge will bend. Neither one
is the end of the world.