Bart,

I need to make a short length of spindle, approx 2" long & 1/4"
diameter (does not have to be exact), out of ebony (hard & dense). I
do not have a chuck on my lathe, all I got is a face plate (yup, Santa
is aware of that...).

On his skew video Alan Lacer turns a piece of really soft wood about 8" long
down to 1/4" using just a skew chisel. He has the wood mounted between
centers. Without going into all the details he is basically pushing the skew
towards the head stock. There is very little force trying to bend the wood.
I should also mention, his skew is very sharp! But 1/4" should be quite
doable. I don't consider myself a good turner but I regularly turn round
toothpicks down to a smaller diameter to use as perches in little acorn
ornaments.

Hope this helps,

Harry