Charlie, you and that skew :-)
Let me be sure of something. "curved edge skew" to me is one that sorta
looks like a bell curve. Mostly a straight edge that curves back toward the
handle on its right edge. Which makes me wonder if you have right hand and
left hand skews? Or maybe you're just keeping a straight edge in the middle
with both ends curved back?

I noticed Lacer? uses that curved corner and maybe that's the root of my
problems since mine are simply straight. A skew guarrantees me two things: a
beautiful finish and redesign practice.

TomNie


"charlieb" wrote in message
...
Prometheus wrote:

How long did it take you to find The One type of turning
you do almost exclusively?
or
How long have you been searching for The One?

Why pick only one? I do whatever the hell I feel like at the time on
the lathe!

I've noticed that the more experienced turners in the turning
club I joined seems to have found one or two types of turning
they really enjoy and have gotten really good at. Some turn
BIG, some turn tiny, some do hollow forms, others do mainly
Natural Edge bowls. By focusing on one area of turning, they
refine their techniques and develop on eye for what shape
works best for a given chunk of wood.

By focusing they get really good at it and pretty fast at
it - no time wasted deciding on what tool to use, what
technique fits the need at the moment.

It's like anything else- I work in a job shop where we do a
combination of one-offs and almost production-level runs. Some people
love the security of doing one or two things over and over, and others
don't care to see the same project twice.

Having worked on an assembly line - at Ford - I can see both
sides. Repetative tasks can leave your mind free to do other
things. One of the guys I worked with had a masters degree
in English Literature. I asked him why he was still On The Line.
"I've written three novels while working here, all worked out
in my head while my hands were doing something else." Since
I was a "utility guy" - I filled in all over The Line when a guy
was out sick, on vacation, etc. so I was seldom doing the same
thing more than a day or two - which, for some jobs, was
quickly mind numbing. Eight hours of building dash boards
is really boring.

The world needs both kinds- when it comes time to do the long runs,
I'm terribly grateful for the guys who want to set up a big job once
and coast through the day, and leave all the short ones for me. They
feel the same about me burning up all the little jobs at a frenetic
pace so that they can get back to pressing a button and shooting the
breeze.

Thankfully some of the grunt work of production runs has
been automated. But there's the danger of becoming
careless. Automated processes don't care if it's your
hand or a piece of wood they cut.

I hope you do keep up your wandering- not everything you've shown here
is my cup of tea, but you've come up with some real gems.

Head over to alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking and have a
look at "Just Skewing Around (with Santos Mahogany)".

After turning the Ants (of Ants & Ahnks) legs I turned a Spider
(for September). Got pretty good at turning small diameter
stuff so I did four "Spires" as Extra Credit for the September
turning club meeting.

If the JET mini/midi had more between centers room I'd have
a go at a real Trembleur. Maybe someday . . .

Back to my original question
Try Them All?
or
Get Really Good With One?

By using a curved edge skew a LOT, I can do things with
one tool where others might use three or four, and can
work almost uninterrupted and almost without thinking.
Stuff just seems to flow. I guess it's sort of like to
old dancing partners - the music starts and the dance
just happens.

I like dancing with my skew ; ).

charlie b