It was a skewed up day!!!!!!!!!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ever since I got some better tools, my ability with the skew has gone down hill......time to change that ...........broke out the skew........looked at it.........broke open the book by Rowley......hey.......the angle ground on this new skew is way off according to Rowley and you know the grind looks a lot longer than what Raffan appears to have in the videos..........measure the angle against a chart in Rowleys book...........Yup.........it's about a 10 degree grind instead of a 25 degree grind.........I take my time..........I mean I really take my time and regrind the skew............later...when I created the funnel I had this chunk of wet wood not doing anything ......too small to do anything productive with a split in it and one large knot so..........why not?..........Boy what a difference the angle ground on a skew can make..........I was smoothing with it.....cut grooves with it........creating recesses with it ........everything you are supposed to do with a skew I was doing....yes...I had two catches....but ......I played with that thing for over an hour....with only two catches...........The angle was too shallow...therefore a small adjustment with your rear hand had more effect than when I ground it to the recommended 25 degree angle.......Yep it was a skewed up day!:)

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Pics Ken, when people start talking angles they don't give a refference, 25 degrees from what? :D

Show me a picture, as the skews in my Dungeon are used for cutting off the ends of cigars, by hand!

I need to get onto the skew thing, but the few times I've tried, they bit HARD, and I don't need that in my life!!!!

I need to watch someone doing it, but to know the correct angle on the tool, now that might just help.

CHeers!

[John Hart]

Ken...I bought a cheapo set a long time ago and that's what I've been using this past year. The skew was performing so well, that I just didn't understand what all this "evil skew" business was about. So, I figured I was doing something wrong.
Then, a couple weeks ago, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a "real" skew. Nice and bright and shiney. WHAM!!!:eek: What the...?? WHAM!!!:eek:

The new skew was evil.:(

But like you said, the grind was so shallow and nothing like the grind on the old skew that worked so well. I haven't reground it yet, but I'm gonna. Til then, I'm back to my old junky skew that works so well.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Super Duper crude pic......

35572

Is that what you mean?

Shallow = long and pointy

not shallow = short and blunt?

Do tell.....

[John Hart]

That's about right for my experience Stu.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Great, both skews I have (evil, evil tools) have the long shallow angle grind.... they will be re-ground soon.....

Cheers!

[Bob Noles]

Moral of the story.... if it ain't broke, don't fix it :p

I'll be staying with my junker that works well thank you :D

[David Fried]

Stu,

Hmmmm ... I think I'm in for a slight reshaping myself!

This is the scale Ken was referring to.
35573

This demonstrates it's use.
35574

Thanks Ken - I had forgotten about these.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Domo, Domo!:D:D

[Kurt Forbes]

I think my favorite skew has an almost 30 degree bevil on it. The cutting edge is pretty darn short and it cuts great.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Stu..........the chart that David posted is the one I was referring to. Interestingly enough, I compared my new parting tool to that chart. Rowley calls for a 25 degree angle on it too. The parting tool was ground to 25 degrees as shown in that chart and performed flawlessly. I couldn't believe the difference after I reground the skew!

John Hart.....one of the things I tried with that reground skew was make a recess in that block as though I was doing the bottom of a bowl or platter. That skew made a perfectly flat recess with nice dovetail that I'm sure and I'll try it later to day, would chuck up nicely. Like you, I've been playing with using the skew as a scraper and it gives the smoothest edges...taking out all tool marks.....incredible tool but you have to relax while using it. It just takes practice......experience.....then......Wow!

[Dennis Peacock]

Alan Lacer says that the bevel is suppose to be 1.5 times the thickness of the steel and that from the Toe to the Heal of the skew is supposed to be 70 º and it's primarily the 70º angle that makes the skew work it's best. Too straight on and you'll get in trouble, far greater than that and you'll get in trouble. 2º either way and you will be fine.....even keep these rules when putting a radius on the skew. Alan Lacer is simply amazing with a skew. ;)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dennis..........Yes....I maintain the 70 degree angle across the width of the skew and found that getting the correct 25 degree bevel provided a much better funtional tool!

[John Hart]

Ya know what I like about Alan Lacer? It's his insistance that you don't use the entire width of the blade at any one time. Move in increments, taking a little bit at a time and come up with a smooth surface that doesn't need sanding.
I haven't acheived his level of perfection(or anything close) but I sure would like to some day.

[Lee DeRaud]

Only problem I can see with the shorter bevel is when doing grooves.

Hmmm...maybe I'll regrind the wide skew the "good" way, and leave the narrow one with the "bad" grind...but only use it for grooves.:cool:

[John Hart]

Only problem I can see with the shorter bevel is when doing grooves.

Hmmm...maybe I'll regrind the wide skew the "good" way, and leave the narrow one with the "bad" grind...but only use it for grooves.:cool:

I created a small groovy specialty tool for that Lee. It's not used very much so it doesn't need sharpening very often. Made from a cheapo HF mini set.

[David Fried]

Alan Lacer says that the bevel is suppose to be 1.5 times the thickness of the steel

If I can still do the trig, a bevel 1.5 times the thickness yields and angle of 19.47 degrees. A little longer than Rowley but still steering us away from that 10 degree bevel. I wonder what mine is?:confused:


...from the Toe to the Heal of the skew is supposed to be 70 º and it's primarily the 70º angle that makes the skew work it's best.

I PMed Dale Thompson to get advice on radiusing my skew. He estimated that his grind has the heel about 3/8" lower than the toe on a 3/4" wide skew. That works out to be 63.4 degrees. Since he estimated the 3/8" I wouldn't be surprised if he is closer to that magic 70.

I had been looking for this information - thanks - the first time I radiused my skew I think I went a little crazy. I have since un-radiused it and now need to check my angles.

Maybe I'll get brave and try radiusing it again one day now that I have some good guidelines.

[Bob Noles]

I had been looking for this information - thanks - the first time I radiused my skew I think I went a little crazy. I have since un-radiused it and now need to check my angles.

Maybe I'll get brave and try radiusing it again one day now that I have some good guidelines.


David,

That reminds me of the time I radiused mine a few weeks ago and spent a couple of hours working on it only to have the Wolverine bring it back to dead straight again by not watching or knowing what I was doing while sharpening it :( :eek: :D Man... talk about feeling stupid :rolleyes:

Now that I am over it, I plan to give it another shot and free hand the sharpening part this time.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Great info guys!

Thanks for starting this thread Ken!!:D

[Keith Burns]

The skew is our friend, the skew is our friend, the skew is our friend.......

[Curt Fuller]

I've never really measured the length of the bevel on my skew but if you want to turn your skew into a sweet tool, grind the cutting edge so it has a slight arc or curve to it. That way you have a lot less cutting edge in contact with the wood and much less chance of a catch. I'm not a numbers or angles or measuring type guy so I can't give you any exact figures. It will still cut a very straight cut like a goblet stem or something but won't catch and sling it across the shop.

Sorry for the poor picture quality but it's easier to understand than my description.

[Richard Jones]

As one new to turning but determined to improve with the skew, I purchased the first of Alan Lacer's videos on the skew. He is really good with it, and goes into a lot of detail on how to tune it and your lathe. Excellent style of teaching, very easygoing, and goes slow so that you can see what he's doing.

I would highly recommend it, as I turned some really nice beads with the skew last night after watching the video.

Ditto to what Dennis said re: angles and lengths of grind. I bought a Sorby oval skew and reground it to 30 d. I also tried honing it at the lathe with a diamond hone and it worked well and saved some trips to the Tormek.

Rich (I'll never run out of things to learn) in VA

[John Hart]

but if you want to turn your skew into a sweet tool, grind the cutting edge so it has a slight arc or curve to it. That way you have a lot less cutting edge in contact with the wood and much less chance of a catch.

Actually Curt...That's a great picture! I think I'll reprofile mine tonight to look like yours. It falls right in line with what I'm finding so far....sorta like a round-nose skew but not as drastic....plus, you still have a point left to do detailing. Nice idea!:)

[David Fried]

I checked my skew against the chart last night. Fit perfectly on the 25 degree picture! Amazing!! How did that happen?:confused: :D Next to check that heel-toe angle...

[Bernie Weishapl]

Checked my skew last night and found it was about 22 degrees. I did sharpen a little bit of a curve in it. I just ordered Alan Lacer video. So hopefully it will help.

[Harry Goodwin]

When I started doing more turning I purchased an oval skew and what a wonderful way to learn that helps wwith the regular ones. Also later met a curved grind that really makes a skew friendly. Harry

[Dick Strauss]

I'm not an expert by any means but I find it better to raise the tool rest above center when using the skew. This keeps you from binding the bottom corner of the skew in the wood since it is cutting uphill.