Jim & Bill

You are right - it is the tendency to hold the handle down - I have done
that and gotten the crap beat out of me. I have held the handle up against
the rest device and it does work, but the cutter does not get a good bite in
that position and I have the edge sharpened correctly... I push forward,
cut a nice wide kerf and pull the tool out of the cut frequently - I have
had this tool for over 3 years and have used it quite a bit. I am not happy
with it and am fixin' to change to a tool with a better support system.
That's all

Ray


"Jim Gott" wrote in message
...
I can not tell you how many times I have wrestled with coring a bowl
with
the Kelton and have had sore arms, tender ribs, a near miss with my chin
and
inconsistent results.
BRBR

Ray,

It sounds to me like you're trying to hold the handle down rather than
holding
it up against the top of the guide. If you hold it up, the guide takes all
the
vertical force so you don't have to. I've seen quite a few people try to
hold
the handle down, which is the natural thing to do when using a normal
hand-held
tool) only to have it buck uncontrollably. That's what the crossbar is
there
for--to take those forces. The main things I learned from Mike Mahoney
about
the McNaughtin is (1) Hold the tool UP against the crossbar, (2) Push
FORWARD,
not to the side when advancing the cutter, and (3) start the cut, go in 2
or 3
inches, then back it out and start another cut to the outside, widening
the
original kerf to allow clearance and to allow chips to evacuate. Then go
back
and use your original inboard kerf and hug the INSIDE of the cut so the
chips
will evacuate to the outside and you will not bind in the cut against the
outside edge.
True, the McNaughtin does take practice, but once you've seen Mike Mahoney
demonstrate its use it all becomes clear. Everything we do in woodturning
takes
practice to get it right. We shouldn't expect anything different from our
coring tools.
-Jim Gott-
San Jose, CA