I have been turning on my Nova 1624 for almost 2 full years now. Mostly plates, platters, bowls, bud vases, lidded boxes and winged bowls. I have become fairly proficient with most of the tools, but I tried a skew for the first time about 18 months ago. Being new to to tool, I had a couple of "near death experience" catches. That caused me to put the skew away somewhere distant, till I had more experience. Well, 12 month ago or so, I brought the skew out of hiding and tried it again. The catches were not deathly, but they did cause my heart to flutter some, and my breathing to quicken. So, I put the skew high up on a nearby shelf, where it couldn't see me. 4 months ago I heard the skew crying, so I brought it out and gave it another try. I seemed to be getting the hang of the thing, but there was not a lot of comfort in using it. So, after some more practice, I put the skew in the corner on a bench.
Well, about a week ago the skew came over and asked me if I wanted to play with him. I gave it a pretty good go, and thought that I was making progress with both the quality(marginal) of my finish, and my comfort with the tool. As it turns out, we have played quite a bit recently and the skew now resides in my tool cabiniet drawer, right next to my bowl and spindle gouges and scrapers. I am looking forward to better days, mastering the skew.