My early skew practice... And the results I got tonight!

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Well Ken and a few others asked about my skew progress.

So here are some photos of my earliest practice pieces using the skew.

Skew1 - shows the results of a nice healthy catch or 2. At the start I was sure glad for the safe driver because I managed to get the most amazing catches.

Skew2 - was my second practice piece. Things were starting to come together pretty nicely. Up until the end that was. I managed not to break it but I got a very very nice spiral cutting catch right at the very end!

Skew3 - I managed to do the whole thing with no ugly catches. a true first for me. The texture coming off of the skew is also coming along. So I decided to try my spindle gouge on one end just to see what it would look like. HOLY COW! The tear out is incredible. Believe it or not I was trying my very best to get a clean surface. The soft soft pine was just to soft for that tool that night.

Spindle - This is the close up of the end where I made the cove with the spindle gouge.

Well they say practice make perfect. And while I am far from perfect check out the next post! :)

Thanks for looking,
Joshua

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Way to go Joshua! Sharp..sharp....sharp and ride that bevel!


It does my heart good to see folks learn to use the skew!

Check out the last two pens I posted. Guess what the only tool I used was?


Careful....skew is 4 letter word! :D

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Well, as I mentioned in an earlier thread my hope is to start turning some ornaments for our tree this year and as gifts for friends and family.

To that end I finally decided it was time to stop practicing and see how well I could do with some hardwood small spindle turning. These are the results I got tonight. And Ken believe it or not I did the whole thing with the skew. Well I parted off with a parting tool for one of the top pieces.

This is my first ever icicle. Not as small and thin as I would like but it turned out OK.

Hummm you know. The pics of the tops are all blurry. And I really need something near the icicle to give a reference for size. I will work on more pics and getting better pics as well. :o But for now you can see the kind of things I managed to do tonight all with the skew.

The wood is very dry Black Walnut that was intended as a pen blank. I bought a few hundred of them last year for less than $0.10 a piece. They are sure coming in handy for this kid of turning.

The tool finish was amazing. Even as "porous" as the black walnut wood is I was able to start sanding at 220 grit. A little walnut oil and some bees wax and it looks truly amazing.

I never ever thought I would be able to make the skew do anything. So I am very happy with my results. Now that tools aren't fighting me I just need to get an icicle shape I really like. :D

Joshua

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Way to go Joshua! Sharp..sharp....sharp and ride that bevel!
...

Careful....skew is 4 letter word! :D
Oh it is indeed. The other photo I should put up is of the end of my ring finger on my left hand. I got a nice slice in it tonight. I was trying to an over grip with support for a very thin practice piece of pine. As I went to shift my hand over to reach around the wood to support the spindle, it was less than 1/4" at that point, I hit the edge and just like a sharp knife will do I sliced myself pretty good. But never one to be daunted I went on to turn the icicle I just posted.

Fun stuff turning! Very fun.

The other thing I turned tonight as a quickie gift for my wife, she love tea light candles, was a simple tea light candle holder. It is a piece of slightly spalted Alder wood. I just hadn't use my bowl gouge in a while and I wanted to make sure I didn't lose my skills. I managed to get no tear out on the end grain and so sanding was only a minute or less through all the grits. It is a simplistic shape but she liked it and I got to have some fun in the shop.

What more can you ask for out of a nice Sunday afternoon!

Joshua

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Joshua....that icicle is gorgeous for a skew project. What a long way you have progressed! Fantastic!

Keep at it!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Joshua....that icicle is gorgeous for a skew project. What a long way you have progressed! Fantastic!

Keep at it!

Hey Ken think we got another one???:eek::D:cool::rolleyes:;)

Joshua that is some nice work. Just keep practicing and it will become second nature. The bottle stopper I posted from Arizona Silhouette with the rose was done entirely with a skew. Started wet sanding at 400 and quit at 600. Buffed and polished. Keep at it.