Skew Chisel Sharpening- The Critical Geometry

Do you love to turn but have a panic attack when you pick up the skew chisel? I think this is the most feared tool for a new turner. They buy a set of tools and start turning. Everything is so so with a few successes and a few mishaps. Then they go to sharpen the tools. Doing this for each tool is a bit confusing for the beginner to say the least. There are a great many sources out there nowadays to get you going in the right direction... except maybe when it comes to the skew.

Why do I say that? To me it is mind boggling that with all the discussion about the different angles to sharpen the edge at in relation to this and that and blah blah blah... The most critical part is always left out. DON'T ROUND OVER THE CUTTING EDGE. Maybe I should say that louder. 

What I mean is that it doesn't matter squat what all that other stuff is if your cutting edge is dubbed over. That is to say that their is not a straight line between the bevel and the cutting edge. It must not be sharpened with a rounded edge like you might see on a carving tool. Why? The skew is a simple tool to cut with on the lathe and requires one key to its successful use and that is you must have the bevel in contact with the turning to support the cutting edge while cutting. If you don't then the tool will catch. 

If your edge is rounded over then when you place the bevel against the turning the cutting edge will not be able to make contact with the turning forcing you to lift off the bevel to engage the cutting edge. When you do this you WILL catch. 

Often a related problem to this is not having a rounded edge from improper sharpening but simply a dull edge. A dull edge is another way of saying that your edge is rounded over. Keep your edge sharp and avoid catches

Also it is important to create a smooth arch to the edge. Not one that has transitions from one area to the next which will make problem prone areas for catching since you will tend to rock from one area of the edge to another while trying to keep the edge cutting. This rocking or shifting that you do while trying to keep the tool cutting lends itself to making you lift off the bevel and catch. 

So here are a few photos of what your edge should look like. Don't focus on the angles of anything but look at how the grooves left by the grinder are smooth and don't transition but create one smooth arch across the bevel. 

Notice that when everything is in one plane the light reflects off the edge consistentaly.

One way to help keep your grind smooth is to "bell" or round the face of your grinding wheel and ride across that high spot. Notice the darker area on the wheel in the background. It is the high shot. I am not trying to sharpen across the whole face of the wheel which would give me way too much area to worry about controlling. This gives me a small area to concentrate on while sharpening. I have no use for a 1" wheel as you might guess.

Now with a nice bevel, it is on to a few passes over my 8000 grit water stone and I will have a gleaming edge. Sounds easy. This is the part where you can round over the edge quickly. It is imperative that you keep the bevel against the stone while honing the edge. Firm (but not grinding) pressure should be applied while evenly and smoothly sharpening from heel to toe and back. 

I admit that is not a great description of how to actually do the honing but fortunately someone (Pete Galbert) made a video a good while back that demonstrates this part quite well. More people should be watching it but unfortunately they are probably learning how to do this from a woodworking writer not a professional maker. (The cynic in me coming out.)

Finally, notice again, that the reflection of light is even across its edge. Once you have removed the grinding wheel marks I stop here and go the lathe. I will return every turning to make a few passes to keep me sharp and catch free.

By the way it is nice to have a bench stone holder like the one pictured to have it up nice and high so you can hone with more control. 

Custom Sized Lathe Bed Tool Rest

Learning to turn chair parts, especially the baluster turnings of windsor chairs, is a huge challenge to the beginning chairmaker. I clearly recall this process. Maybe you do too or maybe you are just now attempting this. Don't be discouraged, you will get there. Here are two things that will definitely help you on your way.

One of the two things that frustrated me when I began turning was; first there was so little proper instruction on how to turn chair parts. The turning world is dominated by vessels. Second, the lathes on the market were designed with features to suit those needs. Where was a tool rest that was longer than 12" to be found? None of the manufactures even offered an optional one to purchase.

Fortunately the first complaint is being addressed. My chair making mentor and buddy, Peter Galbert, is doing a series of articles with Fine Woodworking that specifically gives proper instruction on how to turn spindle type furniture parts. Such as those found on chairs. See the first one of three here. You need to be a member to access it. Before this article I learned to turn by watching his Youtube videos on how to turn a baluster leg and it is totally free. A must see.

Now the second complaint had to be settled by me. I, like most, struggled with that short tool rest and it really seemed to slow down my focus on learning how to turn by forcing me to stop and move the rest to address the other end of the turning. Nothing worst in slowing the presses to learning than an interruption. After I visited Pete's shop and used his 24" tool rest and then working with Curtis Buchanan and seeing his custom shop made tool rest I realized i had to get serious.

So I want to encourage you to get serious and make a long tool rest. I probably made this in about two hours and it has been well worth every minute. I didn't progress until I made this, really. It is worth it, do it, and don't look back.

Here are some photos of the inner workings. As alway, follow the rule of that, any shop apparatus should be of 10 parts or less, otherwise you are probably making it to complex.

First the part you actually rest the tool on would do well to be made of steel. Mine is 1/8 mild flat bar steel inset into the top edge of 8/4 hard maple, glued and screwed.

The tool rest is attached to shop made handscrew clamps that are used to fix the assembly to the bed of the lathe. I think a similar set up would work for most lathes despite the differences in bed dimension. I purchase only one handscrew clamp kit made by Jorgensen and split them up. The inside screw is just a threaded rod with nuts on both ends. They don't need to move once they are set to the bed thickness. Only the rear screw needs to open to adjust the rest.

I set the tool rest at about 20˚ to get the top close to the work while leaving me some room at the bottom from striking the bed. This also keeps the front edge of the body of the tool rest a bit back from the turning blank.

The rest attaches to the handscrew clamps via a bolt that passed through a slot in the rest and is treaded into a square nut housed within the end of the clamps. A square nut prevents it from turning in the mortis when tightening. I used a 3/8" bolt. The only improvement would be to make this function a quick release cam which I may eventually do.

There are some other things that will help you turn but this is a definite must have. Now get to turning! :)

Turning Kiln Dried Hard Maple - Solution

If you are like me, one of the biggest challenges to making some windsor styles is acquiring the right materials, such as hard maple. Heck even in lots of places that you can get all the other woods you need then hard maple is still not there. You have to be in a cold enough climate to get this stuff to grow. Then again just acquiring it green is another matter all together.

So, what to do? Well you can change your turnings to suit other woods but I just have that drive to make those baluster turnings with those really nice thicks and thins. Hard maple is really the only wood you can count to hold up to the stresses. Don't try a half inch cove on soft maple for an arm post turning. Some big guy is sure to break it in a short time.

So here is where I started thinking... I was working on a settee design that will be in the Texas furniture makers show and I just didn't want to do the double bobbin turnings. So, I set out to turn the baluster turnings in kiln dried hard maple. I hit the same old problems of heat build up and dulling my tools quickly. As you know a dull skew chisel will catch in a second. The additional problem is that a less that super sharp chisel will make a turning bounce off the cutting edge rather than slicing, leaving chatter marks, thus making a clean bead very difficult to turn. Sanding is not what we want to have to do if we want to keep those clean crisp features. Now add the final irritant is that supporting the turning with your off hand under those circumstances is just asking for blistered fingers.

Ok enough about the gripes of kiln dried hard maple. This is what I did that seems to just about fix all my complaints. I filled a spray bottle with some water. After roughing down a section to the point where I would move on to the finishing tool, such as the skew, I spayed the surface and let it soak in for a bit. Once absorbed then I could make that final pass and voila! it turns almost as good as the green stuff. Sure not entirely as good but I was able to get an acceptable turning the first go. After a little practice judging the right amount and how much time to wait then they really started to shine. I was so excited at the results that I snapped a pic on my phone.

Above is the first arm post I turned after trying out my idea. The rear turning is the dried stuff and the front turning is a green turing I had on hand. Of course, neither one is sanded but is straight off the tool. As you can see there are some little issues but once I knew that it was working and tweaked my approach a little those seemed to be very minimal. I hope that gets you to thinking about doing some more difficult turnings now. Try it out. Let me know if it works for you too.