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Skew

Dudley

Dudley

Joined
Dec 10, 2005
Messages
96
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0
Location
SW Pennsylvania
Well, Ive been working with the skew and am determined to become proficient (sp?) with it. This little bugger is not easy to get a hold of. I managed to turn a bottle stopper and a vase shaped solid piece of green wood thing with it.

Every time I watch Richard Raffan, I want to learn how to use it more. I'm determined to learn how to use this tool!!!!

BTW... I got the new job. My wife and I have one year from March 27th to move and still get relocation assistance. Wish us luck! The Delta is going to have to sit for a little while until the house is ready to go up on the market.
 
Congratulations! Where do you get to move to? Inquiring minds want to know. In other words, we are nosy.😀

JimQ
 
Dudley said:
Every time I watch Richard Raffan, I want to learn how to use it more. I'm determined to learn how to use this tool!!!!
Click to expand...

Do yourself a favor and get the Alan Lacer Skew video. Raffan doesn't go into any detailed discussions on how to use the skew.... he just charges in. Lacer shows how to use it, why it digs, how to avoid that, etc. Excellent DVD.

Now if I could just learn to properly sharpen the thing I'd be a very happy guy.
 
The video's are great but I think Nick Cook said it best. There are a certain number of catches built into every skew and you just have to use them up. You probably get where he's heading with that statement.
I chucked a small piece of limb stock in my lathe every night for a while and just turned beads. It only took about 5 or 10 minutes to waste away this chunk of wood, then I would just toss it and go on with whatever project I had planned that evening. It didn't take very many of these sessions to get proficient with the skew.
I have several practice cuts that I teach people and I need to put together an article on these. The skew doesn't come easily but after you get it down you look back and think why was that so hard.
 
I agree practice can get you there but there is some truth to ... 'You are either a skew guy or you are not a skew guy' I am teaching my Dad to turn. He says 'I want to use the skew' so I show him what little I know including about 5 catches. Then he tries and it's like I am watching Nick Cook or Alan Lacer. I don't get it and apparently Dad does.
Frank
 
Nick Cook

I got to see Nick Cook demo in Columbus, Ohio. He is really good with the skew and a great demonstrator. I'm getting fairly comfortable using the skew now. I was using the radius edge for a while, but I went back to the strait edge grind. I like the strait edge better most of the time. The main reason I like the strait edge instead of the radius is, its easier to see the toe and heel of the skew as you approach a vertical position with the cutting edge.
 
Brad,
Like you I was determined to geta better handle on the skew. I saw Micheal Macho(sp) who was a resident student at Arrowmont give a demo at Orlando Symposium. This guy uses a skew to turn Finial boxes and he makes it looks so easy. I thought WOW I need to start working with the skew more. That was 2 years ago. Today I do not even give it a second thought about using the tool. I just pick it up and go. Check out Micheal if you get the chance.. You will be blown away!!!! Vince
 
different skew grind

Hello,

One of the first professionals I ever saw work was Alan Lacer at his home in River Falls, WI. It was a great experience. Since then I have been using the skew similar to what he recommends. This past week I had the extreme pleasure of taking a course from Eli Avisera. He has a completely diiferent approach to the tool. His skew is sharpened opposite. Meaning he has a convex bevel. Everyone in the class was baffeled by this and sceptical since this is so contrary to what others have taught.

Bottom line, it work really well. I could preform all the same cuts without a problem and no cacthes. When I asked him how he came up with this grind he smiled and said when he was teaching his 7 year old he found that the convex bevel was much easier for him to use. Now many of his tools employ this type of grind. In your quest for skew success concider trying this technique. I have already ground my skew to match his. 🙄
 
Sometime in one of the AW Journal issues last year there was a comparison article about skews. It was written by Alan Lacer and someone else. Alan extolled the virtues of a straight bevel, and the other guy extolled the convex bevel.
 
A little slower please,

I learned all I needed to know about the skew in 15 minutes from Larry Zarra when he was a member of The Bayou Woodturners. Houston is blessed to have Larry in their area with the Gulf Coast group.

I went home and slowed down my lathe to a crawl. In fact, I had a buddy turn the handwheel by hand for about 5 minutes. I then got down and watched the tool work, I watched how the bevel made the cut happen, how it rode and how it helped eliminate catches. I then began comparing the skew to the "Block plane of the lathe" A block plane won't work unless you ride the bed of the lathe. A skew is the same way, ride the bevel or don't ride at all. But you can learn all of this at slow speed and with green wood so catches don't hurt nearly as much. Get a buddy over to give you a hand understanding what happens at 1 rpm, then speed it up.
 
Well...

Nick Cook would probably come unglued, (and he showed me a few tips on using a skew!) but I used my skew as a negative rake scraper the other day and it finally removed all the tearout on a box I was working on... 😱

In fact it worked better than any other scraper I was using. So maybe Stuart Batty and Nick should have a dual instead of Nick and Dale Nish... 😀

Back on subject.

I'm still learning to use it, and the skew is still challenging, but not impossible. Evidently I'm still working the catches out of mine. I agree that one should 'get warmed up' with the skew and cut some throwaway pieces each evening.

I've tried the convex grind, but I still prefer the straight grind.
 
I think we may be getting a confusing set of terms here and I want to make sure we have them straight.
What I refer to as a convex bevel is the actual ground bevel of the tool not the cutting edge. Bevels can be ground , flat, concave and convex.
The cutting edge that Nick and Alan were argueing over in the article is a straight cutting vs a curved cutting edge. Personally I prefer a straight cutting edge. I have tried concave and flat bevels and prefer the concave because it's easier to sharpen with a diamond hone or strop than the flat bevel was. Haven't tried convex.
So back to the question. Does Avisary use a convex bevel or a convex(curved) cutting edge or both.
I know there has been some discussion on creating a convex bevel on a bowl gouge for doing the inside of a bowl.
 
Eli uses a straight edge with a 70 degree difference between short and long points. It is the bevel that is convex. I haven't tried Alans curved or radius type cutting edge with the convex bevel yet. Off hand I can't see why it wouldn't work. It does work nicely on the concave grind. Hope that helps.
 
Whoops! I got caught in that confusion...

I was referring to a curved cutting edge, not a convex bevel.

Thanks for the clarification John.
 
Thanks for the congrats and wishes of luck. I spent the last two days taking my "old" boss to customers he should have went with me to see in the last three years. 700 miles.... 2 days.... one customer! Oh well, 7 days to go and "new Job"!!!!

I believe someone asked if I live near Uniontown. Yes, I actually live in Youngwood now and negotiated a relocation to somewhere between Scottdale and Uniontown with my new job. It'll save 40 miles round trip to my new sales area.

What a great discussion about the skew. I'm probably going to Woodcraft sometime in the next few days and am thinking of picking up the skew attachment for my wolverine jig. Is it worth the 20 some dollars?
 
IF you buy and plan to use the oval one (see description below), the skew attachment for a wolverine jig is worth the 20 some dollars. BUT my experience is similar to Alan Lacer’s in that we each bought the oval one (and I have the sharpening jig) and never use it. If you have a flat tool guide for your grinder it works great for the flat sided skews.

I know of 4 styles of skews. Each has 3 aspects that can be flat or curved:
The tool steel, the cutting edge shape and the bevel.

I have 3 types of skews.
Type AL are flat rectangular steel w/ rounded edges; a cutting edge shaped like an arc (convex); the bevel is hollow ground on a grinding wheel, then honed. (This is Alan Lacer’s preferred shape.)
Type OLD is flat rectangular steel w/ sharp edges (I’ve soften a bit); a straight cutting edge angled across the flat side; also hollow ground. (Old because it is high carbon steel from a friend’s Dad’s estate.)
Type OVAL is oval shaped steel; a straight cutting edge angled across the flat side; hollow ground.

Type RND would be the one I read about in American Woodturner about a creating a skew by grinding 3/8 inch round tool steel length off at an angle and putting into a handle.

Note: all have “a 70 degree difference between shrt and long points.â€Â
 
dogdriver said:
Hello,

One of the first professionals I ever saw work was Alan Lacer at his home in River Falls, WI. It was a great experience. Since then I have been using the skew similar to what he recommends. This past week I had the extreme pleasure of taking a course from Eli Avisera. He has a completely diiferent approach to the tool. His skew is sharpened opposite. Meaning he has a convex bevel. Everyone in the class was baffeled by this and sceptical since this is so contrary to what others have taught.

Bottom line, it work really well. I could preform all the same cuts without a problem and no cacthes. When I asked him how he came up with this grind he smiled and said when he was teaching his 7 year old he found that the convex bevel was much easier for him to use. Now many of his tools employ this type of grind. In your quest for skew success concider trying this technique. I have already ground my skew to match his. 🙄
Click to expand...

OK....my pea brain is having problems visualizing this. A concave bevel is created on a grinding wheel, and would be called a hollow grind if I have my terms right? Typically made on a 6 or preferably an 8 inch diameter wheel? So.....I have visions of a convex bevel being made on what amounts to the inside surface of a grinding donut that would have a 6" or preferably 8 inch inside diameter? Am I picturing this correctly?

Signed....confused in Hawaii?
 
Dave A convex bevel can be ground on the skew using a belt sander. I learned to do this from Don Russel although Don used it as a scraper for doing side grain segmented vessels. It works incredibly well for that. I would suspect it works similar to the negative rake scrapers. Just pull it over the belt on one side and then pull it over the belt on the other. This leaves burr that really cuts.
If I was going to use this as a skew I would of course polish off the burr.
Using the side of a grind wheel is not recommended. Unless you buy one specifically designed for side ginding you could damage your wheel. I've used the side for some grinds but I use extremely light pressure.
 
Eli uses an 8 inch wheel and grinds the skew so that intead of having a concave bevel the bevel is rounded up to the tip. So the side profile is more of a bullet shape ( with a sharp tip). Where a normal skew is more of a V shape. I am sorry I am out of town at work and can't send pictures. It can be made on a belt sander and Eli deminstrates it on the lathe using a lathe driven grinding wheel. He doesn't recommend on the lathe grinding other the for demos due to the abraisive material possibly damaging the lathe.

It works. Maybe some one could convinve him to write an article explaining his technique for an up coming journal.
:cool2:
 
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