I've now been turning for a number of years and happily churn out most of
the usual things with little problem - even to the point of having mastered
a little twistwork! However, there's one stumbling block which seems so
fundamental it's almost embarrassing to admit it!: Turning beads with a skew
chisel. I've just ruined yet another acorn-shaped finial because the skew,
once again, ran back up the bead resulting in one of those artistic spiral
dig-ins. I've tried using the toe end of the skew, the heel end, I've tried
using a 10mm beading tool, all to no avail. I've understood that if I try to
take too much timber off at once the cut gets blocked and the centrifugal
force applied by the wood becomes greater than the downward force of the
chisel - so I've tried taking off smaller amounts each cut. This results in
having to take more cuts per bead to get the shape right and therefore the
chances of a dig-in seem to rise alarmingly. I can do a few beads perfectly
OK and then the dig-in which has been lying in wait happens yet again. Does
anyone have any ideas what I might be doing wrong? Oh, the other thing is:
do you use the bead-rolling technique to round the end of a spindle - for
example when forming an acorn shape or is there some other less hazardous
way of doing it? I'd be grateful for any help with this one - it's becoming
a real pain.

Many thanks

Ron Headon
Swindon, England