Do You use a skew??

[Brian Brown]

I just watched Richard Raffan's video on basic turning. I was very impressed with his skill using a skew chisel. I ran right out to the shop to prove I could master the disaster tool. Nope, still the disaster tool. My question is how many of you use a skew and how do you use it. Please respond to the poll, and we'll see if videos showing skew use are just done with Hollywood special effects.:D

Brian

[Mike Golka]

I am very green at turning, only had my lathe since Aug. but I figured if the skew didn't work well they wouldn't have included it in the set of chisels I bought. Tried all the tools, (no idea what I was doing) watched a few videos from the web, OK that looks easy, went out to the shop and to my surprise using the tools as intended acually works :D . I now use the skew quite often especialy for finishing cuts, smoooth! I found the trick is to "ride the bevel".

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian,

At a challenge dropped by Chris Barton, I spent several days practicing with my skew. It has become one of, if not, my favorite tool. Granted it can't be used on every project but for spindle work it can do some amazing things and leave a surface that any sanding degrades the finish!

As stated by Mike....the skew mantra is "ride that bevel!"

[Jim Young]

Slowly using it more and more. Still a little scared of it.

[Paul Engle]

I agree with Ken, I used it to do spindle work and for finish it is parr excellence, the sharper the better it works.

[Vince Welch]

Hi Brian,

Yes, I use the skew and have become quite comfortable with the tool. The difference for me came when I envisioned the tool the same way I use a bowl gouge during a light sheering cut. The angle of the tool to me is the same. If you are up for trying a suggestion... try using a 3/8 gouge with a "Irish grind" for a sheer cut. Notice the angle of the gouge, the presentation, and the slicing/cutting action. Then sharpen that pesky skew and present it to the wood. Only use the bottom 1/3 to cut! Get a sharpy marker and mark the bottom 1/3 if that will help you. Envision that gouge and how it cut. Just take light cuts and build some confidence. Let us know how you are coming along. You can do this one small cut at a time. Vince

[Raymond Overman]

I use an oval skew. Mostly as a scraper. :( Sometimes as it should be used. It's definitely something that has to be practiced.

[Burt Alcantara]

Two things:
Buy Alan Lacer's The Skew Chisel.
Buy 4 2x4s. Rip them down the middle and use them for practice. When you can get a baby's butt finish, you'll understand the skew. Alan's DVD makes it very easy to do all of this.

It's not that hard. It's just a matter of practice but using the correct techniques.

Try it. You'll like it.
Burt

[Steve Kubien]

Love my skews (1/2 round and BIG one from P&N). Finishing cuts, touching up tenons for bowl mounts, recesses for same and since I don't own a roughing gouge, I use the big one for roughing spindle work. I wouldn't be without them, even though I am not very good with them (I don't get the same results as others...yet).

Steve Kubien
Ajax, Ontario

[Reed Gray]

I do mostly bowls, but I do some spindles (spurtles, basting brushes, rolling pins, potato mashers, and ocasional chair parts). I use it just enough to get the feel of it, then put it away to turn more bowls. Not very good at beads with it, but can see how it can be done. Kind of like Vince, I have learned to apply what I know about bowl gouges to the skew. Same principals, just a different tool.
robo hippy

[John Hart]

I use my skews for most of my outside surfaces. I feel that I have better control of my cuts than with a gouge. The tip of the skew is invaluable for detailing as well. It is the key tool for me in making the mouths of vases and the edges of natural edge turnings. Can't live without it. :)

[Henry C. Gernhardt, III]

Hello again, folks, and please forgive my extended leave of absence.

I find the skew to be an invaluable tool for crisp fillets and smooth curves, though I do have to be careful about what size skew I use. It's probably just my technique, but I've found that a 3/4" skew won't make as fine a bead or fillet as will a 1/4". Whenever I try to use the bigger one for smaller work, I just wind up shearing off more wood than I wanted to.

Oh, and is it just me, or is Mulberry a finicky wood to deal with?

[Mike Vickery]

I use it regularly if I do spindle work, however usually do not do much spindle work.

[Ron McKinley]

I used to use skews for opening paint cans but now I'm beginning to learn how to use those things......Ron

[George Guadiane]

I used to use skews for opening paint cans but now I'm beginning to learn how to use those things......Ron
They're GOOD for opening paint cans aren't they (till you break the edge).
I recently had a TINY spindle job, darn near killed me with humility (I thought I was getting to be a pretty good turner).
:oI am MUCH better with the skew, but still feel like a novice.:(

[Harry Goodwin]

Years ago in a pattern shop we avoided skews with scrapers and gouges and diamond points taking up the usual tools. I have now retired and doing some turning and found that the oval skew is a lot easier to learn and a radiused skew will be of help in the beginning. Then the regular skews are a lot easier to handle and I just try to use the middle of the edge to do the work. Harry

[Allen Neighbors]

I use a skew all the time. For a long time it was just something to protect me from bears and lions... (never did have to use it)... but after seeing a short video on some website about using a skew, I went to the shop and made myself use it. After much fear, and too many catches, I can now use it fairly well on pretty straight pieces, but still can't turn a bead with it. I have three. One 1/2", and two 1". One is oval, wish it wasn't. One is worn down to 2.5 inches, wish it wasn't. One, is also getting too short, so I'm going to have to spring for another. It will be a Doug Thompson 1".

[Jude Kingery]

Henry, Mulberry is an unpleasant wood for me to work with, I find it to be like cutting celery on steroids, so generally I avoid it and stick with Mesquite! Oh the skew, I use it some, but the bowl gouge is my favorite by far. Best to you, Jude

[Bernie Weishapl]

I use my skew all the time. It is my favorite tool to use. I couldn't be without them. Get Alan Lacer's "The Skew Chisel." It is excellent and how I learned to use it. It is so cool to make a 3/4" long top with his big skew.

[chip hamblin]

As is said with bears - so it is with skews (sometimes I use the skew, sometimes the skew uses me)

[Andy Hoyt]

Henry C!

Where ya been boy?

[Jon Lanier]

Back when I turned all the time (many moons ago) I used a skew constantly. We didn't have all these new fangled things they have nowadays. I think it can be quite versatile, scraping, beading, shearing and parting. I never understood this fear of the skew.

[Johnathan Bussom]

Yes Brian, I use several of them, I also have that same video by Raffan!

Watch it again, even HE has catches! Sharpness is first, Presentation is second, Ride the bevel and THINK why that catch took place.

I only turn part time as a hobby, pens, birdhouse ornaments, small boxes, wine stoppers etc, but it is the first tool I pick up, yep, I also use it rather than a roughing gouge! It is not the right tool for every cut but once you learn its place it's great!

[John Hart]

I used to have a real fear of my oval skew...until I realized its usefulness. On an outer radius...starting with just the tip touching the wood and getting contact established, the skew can be rolled slowly through the curve. Creates a smooth even curve with virtually no tearout and little sanding required. I rarely slide my skew on the toolrest....rather, I establish contact at the tip or heel and pivot from there.

Also realized that the skew is not a casual tool that you can approach the work all loosey goosey....unlike many of the other tools where you can make sweeping cuts. That's when most of my catches occur....when I relax. The skew is one that you need to focus....and use controlled force. Then it becomes invaluable.

[Donald Barfield]

I just recently started learning to turn and have found after rounding my wood with the roughing gouge the skew is the easiest and most versital tool I have to use. From everything I have read about them being hard to use maybe I am just having beginners luck.:confused:

[Dean Thomas]

Two things:
Buy Alan Lacer's The Skew Chisel.
Buy 4 2x4s. Rip them down the middle and use them for practice. When you can get a baby's butt finish, you'll understand the skew. Alan's DVD makes it very easy to do all of this.

It's not that hard. It's just a matter of practice but using the correct techniques.
I'm with Burt & Ken. The skew is about 60% a matter of practice and about 15% physics and about 25% sharpening, in my own experience. My first tries were dreadful. Raffan's video, Bonnie Klein's videos, and some others were helpful. I did not find Lacer's video until after I'd had about 4 hours of small group skew therapy with Alan and got to watch him in person and from many angles. The sharpening thing was truly an "aha" moment for me. I've known about dull tools for decades, but for some really stupid reason never transferred that knowledge to my lathe chisels. Once the bulb went off in the head and I realized that I was working with hammers instead of chisels, I bought a good wheel and started sharpening and honing my lathe tools. SUCH a difference! :rolleyes: I actually could get a 180 grit finish directly from the skew and from the gouge both. I was impressed. Then, years later, I got to watch Alan Lacer and have his hands guide my hands until I could recognize the cutting angle, the bevel angle, and the connection between bevel contact and good cuts. I like Stuart Batty's terms--gliding or floating the bevel--better than I do rubbing the bevel. Rubbing implies downward force to me, and it does not need to rub as in burnish. Part of an overly polished piece of wood is not the quality of the cut, but rather the burnishing from really pressing that bevel into the wood. Been there, done that, NOT what we want as turners. Gliding or floating the bevel on the work makes me think of a skim board or boogie board at the shore. The board is following the sand very closely, just molecules of water away from the grit, but still enough to float along or glide along. If you think of the bevel as being a molecule away, it might help keep you from pushing in and burnishing.

One man's tired thoughts...

[Wayne Bitting]

I hated the shew for a long time. Now when doing smaller projects like pens, toppers or peppermills, the small oval shew was my #1. I can start sanding at 400 grit when I use it. As for the bigger projects, I'm not that good with it and it ends up being a scrapper most of the time.

[Steve Ott]

I use the skew often. It makes the prettiest and quickest spirals on a piece.:D

Steve

[Brian Brown]

Well, the poll results are in, and It looks as if I should make a better effort to learn to use my skew chisels. Raffan sure made it look easy. I sat down and had a serious chat with my skew. After some heavy soul searching (yeah, get the hip waders it's getting deep in here) I thought the problem I am having might be caused by the tool grind. When I first started turning, I took a class at a local tool store, and the instructor used my never touched skew, and reground the tip as a sharpening demo. He changed the profile because as he said, "you'll never cut any thing with that profile". Because of the new rounded bevel (can you call a rounded edge a bevel???) in order to get the cutting edge to contact the wood, I have to lift the handle quite high, at which time the the bevel is no longer in contact with the wood. My thought is that the tool is now in a more "scraperish" presentation, and this is causing my catches. Am I right or wrong here, and do I regrind, or just get a new hobby. These pictures (please forgive my drawing abilities) show the approximate profiles before and after the regrind.

75451

Thanks for your help. I would really like to figure this thing out.

Brian

[Tom Sherman]

Brian, I believe I would go back to the original grind, if it works for Lacer, Raffan and the others it should work for you. Just practice practice practice.

[Brad Hammond]

i tend to use my skew for turning acrylic pens more than anything lately, but that experience has really really tightened up my technique when it comes to turning with wood. i'd never thought about using it for pens until i talked to a pen turner at a craftshow recently and it works like a dream on acrylics!

[John Hart]

Brian....that regrind really reveals the problem I think. I agree with Tom that you oughta get it back to flat or slightly concaved. I keep mine with a slightly concaved profile that keeps the handle end low. Works for me anyways.:)

[Andy Hoyt]

On the other hand, that regrind should work in theory. The bevel is just minimalistic in nature and simply mandates a higher degree of control. I think.

If you don't like the thought of raising the tool handle so high, try raising the tool rest a bit.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian...Just before I tore down the "diving board" bench and set my Jet Mini aside to refinish my shop, I bought 2 Alan Lacer skews. I haven't sharpened or used either one yet. What I've been using up to now is a straight ground 3/4" skew. At first I didn't like it. One thing I did that worked for me was to set the angle of the bevel on the skew. I set it so the length of the bevel is about 1.5 times the thickness of the blade. In other words, if the skew is 1/8" thick, the length of either bevel...is about 3/16". This sets the angle. Before doing that, the length of the bevel was longer indicating a shallower bevel angle and I found it tough to control...just a slight raise on the handle resulted in multiple catches......The other thing...practice and sharp.....I grind mine and then hone it with a diamond hone.

[Brian Brown]

Ken,

Thanks for the info. My skew bevel length right now is about 3-3.5 times the thickness of the blade. It works sometimes, but If I lift the handle just a bit too high, I get tiny catches that make my workpiece look like I'm using a chater tool. Definitely not the finish I'm looking for from a skew. I'm going to try and regrind it.

By the way, if you don't start using those tools, I'm going to drive up there and take them away form you.:D This excuse of waiting til the shop is done is wearing thin. No shop is ever done, otherwise it wouldn't be a shop. If you ever announce that the shop is finished, your wife will come in and start decorating. Then you won't be allowed to make dust!:eek: Nope, time to start working. It won't feel like home unless you have bad electrical, an uneven floor, holes in the wall, and a draft from that door that fell off the hinges three years ago. Yep, It's time to break in that new shop.:D

Brian

[John Hart]

Here's Alan Lacer's instruction iffen yer interested: :)

Sharpening of the Lacer Skews

First let me describe the shape of the cutting edge. About one-fourth to one-third of the edge from the long point is a straight line-and 90 degrees to the long point edge. The balance of the edge is a curved shaped. Two other aspects of the edge are critical: try to maintain an angle of approximately 70 degrees from point to point, and grind the bevel length to approximately one-and-one half times the thickness of the steel.

Once these shapes and dimensions have been achieved, actual sharpening of the edge is next.
http://www.alanlacer.com/images/handouts/honingskew/Honing_Skew_1a.jpg
Set the tool rest of a dry wheel grinder to the preferred
bevel angle (achieved by grinding the length of the bevel
to the one-and one half times formula). Start with the
straight part of the edge held horizontally (or parallel
to the axis of the grinder) and grind that region. Next, with
a pivoting motion, grind the curved section when it is
moved into a horizontal position on the wheel. I try to
maintain the same position on the tool rest and simply
pivot or rotate the tool from a single point. Grind until
sparks just appear over the top edge of the tool. Turn
the tool over and grind the other side in the same
fashion. The objective is to grind a slight hollow-ground
edge with a single facet. Work slowly and keep the skew
flat on the tool rest of the grinder.
http://www.alanlacer.com/images/handouts/honingskew/honing_skew_2a.jpg
Next, I hone four faces of the skew.
This is best done with a flat diamond
honing stone in a "fine grit" of 500 or
600. Since there is now a hollow-ground
edge, simply touch the stone at the back of the
bevel, close the angle towards the cutting edge
until you have a two-point contact at the
back of the bevel and just below the cutting edge.
Work the honing stone along both of the
long cutting edges in this manner-normally with a "back and forth" motion. Then place the stone on the long flat edge behind the long point of the skew. Hone this area with the same back and forth motion, being sure to keep the stone flat on this surface. Finally, hone the area behind the short point in a similar fashion-even though that section has been rounded all the way to the ferrule, you can still refine the short point by keeping the hone flat on the edge behind the short point. Honing is excellent following grinding to refine the edges, but also is used to keep the edges sharp while working. So, hone frequently and thereby avoid excessive
trips to the grinder.
Thoughts on this grind:

I have tried a variety of grinds for the skew and prefer this style. I must admit that I have found this grind-or similar grinds-being used by woodturners in North America over much of the last century. The advantages of it as I see it are several: the straight section is excellent for peeling cuts (much like a large parting tool) and slicing rounded pommels with the long point down; the straight section also serves as a warning to stay clear of when doing planing and rolling cuts (such as beads) with the short point down; the curved section works well for planing cuts in "chippy" woods; the curved edge wraps over a curve better than a straight section (as in convex shapes); the curved area can be used to scoop concave shapes.
Additional articles (http://www.alanlacer.com/) on the skew, sharpening and honing can be found on my web site.
Good turning to you!
Alan

©Copyright 2005 Alan Lacer

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken,



By the way, if you don't start using those tools, I'm going to drive up there and take them away form you.:D This excuse of waiting til the shop is done is wearing thin. No shop is ever done, otherwise it wouldn't be a shop. If you ever announce that the shop is finished, your wife will come in and start decorating. Then you won't be allowed to make dust!:eek: Nope, time to start working. It won't feel like home unless you have bad electrical, an uneven floor, holes in the wall, and a draft from that door that fell off the hinges three years ago. Yep, It's time to break in that new shop.:D

Brian

Brian,

I have a 4 day weekend. If the vertigo attacks hold off, Friday morning I'll rent a engine hoist and get with it!

I'm anxious to use the new tools but I know from my past history, once that lathe gets setup litlle else will happen for a while...........maybe a long while ......not like this time........a little while....20 months or so:D

[Richard Madison]

Yeah, I use mine fairly often. Makes beautiful, smooth, lacy little curls, since I reground it into a varying radius curved scraper.

[Leigh Costello]

At first, I just used my skew to launch wood chips at unsuspecting walls and ceilings. Now I can use it to finish off a pen barrel on occasion. My most recent attempt ended miseralby with an ornament launching itself in many pieces all over the shop. Guess I caught a burr.....

[Tim Malyszko]

It's been a while since I posted. Anyway, the skew chisel is one of my most frequently used tools. I use it on everything from bowls, spindle work, pens, etc. to get a smooth finish.

I've only been turning 6 months now and I was fortunate enough to take a one-on-one class with an exceptional turner who showed me the correct way to use a skew chisel. I hope I don't jink myself, but I've never caught the edge bad enough to do any damage to either myself, the tool or the piece I've been turning.

As far as bowls go, I use the skew chisel to create the dovetail for my Nova G3 chuck and use it to clean up the outside of the bowl and to flatten the bottom along with the top if there is a rim on the bowl.

When I turn pens, I get the pens down to a rough cylinder with my roughing gouge and finish them off with the skew chisel.

As far as spindle work goes, I do the majority of the work with my roughing gouge, scraper, spindle gouge parting tool, but use the skew chisel on the very last cuts to smooth out everything so I don't have to do as much sanding when finished.

With that being said, it's probably my favorite tool because it's what provides the smooth finish before proceeding to sanding. I've found it to be very versitle and have a lot of respect for it.