Hey, everyone's gotta have an opinion. Some are based on discovery, like
math computations or scientific experimentation, some on experience, either
personal or vicarious, without attempt at explanation. Some are just the
way "Personality X" does things, and s/he's a recognized turner.

Doesn't matter how you get the edge, matters how you employ it.

I think Ray's sort of tweaking you and me with his "round" reply. If you
know your geometry, you know that two points define a line. If those two
points are the heel of your bevel and its edge, the only thing they can do
is slide along that line. To cut below the line, you need to lift the heel.
Same for a convex arc, where it would be impossible to cut anything smaller
than the radius of the wheel that ground the bevel while maintaining full
contact.

Then there's the concave....

Which is why "rubbing the bevel" doesn't mean at right angles to the edge,
but along it, where the depth of cut is more or less the same height above
chord you calculated, and a gouge with its swept and curved edge can take a
shaving which curls with little shear, and twists with more, while
referencing on the concave face of the cut.

"Maxprop" wrote in message
k.net...


I went to an 8" grinder to accommodate the larger wheels based upon my
interpretation of what I was reading. But many herein use 6" grinders
(which I also own) with apparently good results and no problems. Guess
it's
a non-issue. So why do the instructional books make such a big deal of
it?
The implication is that if you don't have 8" wheels, or larger, you might
as
well take up knitting baby blankets in lieu of turning.