After reading the skew post and seeing all those beautiful wands, I'm almost embarrased to post this. I finally cut a chunk of scrap wood kind of square and got it up on the lathe. I learned a number of things. Fisrt of all, I like the roughing gouge. It felt fairly easy to use and safe. Secondly, the skew is not so intuitive, and a little nerve wracking to start.i tried to play around a little with beads to get a feel for the tools. The tools definitely give you feedback and let you know what angles and such they prefer to be held at.
I learned to do the spiral catch quite easily, and made several other observations.
One is that my tool rests has nicks in it that prevent smooth motion for sliding to rough out, or pivoting to make the bead. Will have to take a file to it.
Another is that you have to pay attention to where the end of the tool is when you aren't actually cutting with it. More than once, I was just looking where I was going to start my next cut and managed to touch the tool somewhere on the workpiece making a gouge in the wood.
Another is that I really admire the work of members on this forum. It gives me something to aspire to.
I did have fun giving this a try and look forward to many more hours of standing in front of the lathe.
It's nice to think that with a little practice and patience, I could turn the legs and make a footstool, turn a spindle for a repair job, or make a rolling pin.it's all very exciting!
Almost forgot to mention that I think I may be holding onto the tools too tightly. Is the death grip not the one you use? I felt like I was holding on for dear life. I think I can relax the grip a little.