Darrell Feltmate wrote:

Tom
I tried a curved skew for a while and just did not like it.I prefer the
straight grind and find it just as friendly if not friendlyer than the
curved.

For rolling a round or oval bead straight edge or curved edge doesn't
matter at all. But when it comes to "S-curves", like on the top of
a tear drop shape typical or spinarets (think onion shaped) the
curved
cutting edge allows you to transition from a roll in one direction to
a roll in the other to a straight tapering cut in one continuous
move.
In the transition you're cutting with the Sweet Area of the skew,
with
the long point AND heel corner back off the wood. I added an
illustration at the bottom of this page to hopefully give you an idea
of how such a cut can be made with a curved edge skew. This
cut can be done in reverse, starting at the narrow end of the
tear drop and pulling back towards the wide part of the tear drop
shape.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...urning14C.html

With a straight edged skew, for peeling cuts, you have to raise the
long point and drop the heel - AND angle the edge about 45 degrees
to the cutting axis to stay in the Sweet Spot on the cutting edge.
With the curved edge skew you've got a longer part of the edge
that's "sweet" and since you're using a "point of contact" between
the edge and the wood you can hold the tool almost horizontal and
on either side of square to the long axis of the piece. As long
as you stay ABOVE centerline, it's difficult to "dig in", even on
small diameter, unsupported on one end fine tapering cuts.

So, while both are skew chisels, the straight edge and curved
edge skews work VERY differently. If you try and use a curved
edge skew using the methods that work for a straight edged
skew you're almost guaranteed frustration - and visa versa.
They're different tools requiring different methods of use.

I practice for more frustrating hours than I care to remember
with the straight edged skew. Even a slight lapse in concentration
and it was dig in or a nasty spiral cut time. Those pretty much
went away once I ground a curve in the cutting edge. Since
then I keep finding new, at least to me, cuts I can make fairly
easily with the curved edge skew.

While doing these delicate pieces I had NO catches and only
two or three spiral cuts, all minor and easily fixed. With a
straight cutting edge skew, those spiral cuts would have
been a mini-disaster and one would have meant Do Over.

For anyone who has given up on straight edged skews, I
strongly recomend trying a curved cutting edge skew and
initially skip pine, fir or poplar and go with cherry, or walnut
or mahogany.

charlie b

ps - will try doing some illustrations on how to regrind a
straight edged skew to make it into a curved edge skew.
It can't be done with any griding jig I'm aware of but it
really is fairly easy to do free hand - on a sanding disk
or the sides of the slow speed, wet TORMEK wheel. DO
NOT try grinding with sides of a dry wheel grinder, slow
or high speed ( if 1780 rpms can be called "slow" - the
TORMEK turns SLOW - as in 50 rpms - and the wheel is
THICK - and wet.