I got my skew today

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Rolland

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Joined
Dec 27, 2010
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146
Location
Camp Verde, AZ
I finally got my skew today guess it was lost in space for a while. Its a Crown made in England, HHS, I touched up the edge and am about to put it to use. It says its sheffield steel so it should be good. It took a nice edge with a little work I am using a set of razor stones my great grandfather had.
Having never used one I am wasting wood until I get a feel for it.
 
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alphageek

Former Moderator
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Jul 19, 2007
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Green Bay, WI, USA.
Have fun.... Once you get the knack of it, you'll never go back for pens. Lately I may use my carbide insert based tool for roughing, but other than that its all skew!!
 

ed4copies

Local Chapter Manager
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Mar 25, 2005
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24,523
Location
Racine, WI, USA.
Dean,

Friendly suggestion: They call them "roughing gouges" for a reason. Unless you are using Trustone or bone (real), use a sharp 1"ish roughing gouge to turn to round. (Or a big skew that will dampen the vibration). The carbon tools will do nice finish cutting, but taking corners off square blanks is likely to knick the carbon (IMO), shortening their normal long life.

FWIW.
 

MorganGrafixx

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Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
290
Location
Snelville, GA
ed4copies said:
Dean,

Friendly suggestion: They call them "roughing gouges" for a reason. Unless you are using Trustone or bone (real), use a sharp 1"ish roughing gouge to turn to round. (Or a big skew that will dampen the vibration). The carbon tools will do nice finish cutting, but taking corners off square blanks is likely to knick the carbon (IMO), shortening their normal long life.

FWIW.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The skew is by far my favorite tool, but I would NEVER risk my razor sharp edge by using it to round over/rough a blank of any material. They make different tools to accomplish different tasks for a reason. would you use a sledge hammer to counter sink finish nails?
 

bensoelberg

Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2010
Messages
782
Location
Bakersfield, California
Couldn't have said it better myself. The skew is by far my favorite tool, but I would NEVER risk my razor sharp edge by using it to round over/rough a blank of any material. They make different tools to accomplish different tasks for a reason. would you use a sledge hammer to counter sink finish nails?

I might pay to watch someone else try!! :tongue:
 
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
3,227
Location
Millersburg, OR
Most things come fairly easy to me but using a skew didn't. During the learning process mine spent several days in the trash can and was only pulled out because I needed a door stop. Then I decided I paid too much for it so I saved it and tried again several months later and that time it clicked, still no expert but it is now one of my favorite tools.
 

alphageek

Former Moderator
Joined
Jul 19, 2007
Messages
5,120
Location
Green Bay, WI, USA.
Dean,

Friendly suggestion: They call them "roughing gouges" for a reason. Unless you are using Trustone or bone (real), use a sharp 1"ish roughing gouge to turn to round. (Or a big skew that will dampen the vibration). The carbon tools will do nice finish cutting, but taking corners off square blanks is likely to knick the carbon (IMO), shortening their normal long life.

FWIW.

D'oh... Thats a good point.

***Bleep**** - I hate it when you point out what should have been obvious! :eek::eek: Thanks Ed! Some days I forget how much I have yet to learn in this hobby!!

Now I have to go back out to the shop tonight, make sure that I have a sharp gouge and prove to myself thats a faster/better way (which I'm sure it is... I'm just using this as a good excuse to go into the shop! :wink: )
 

PenMan1

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
6,380
Location
Eatonton, Georgia
If you really want to take off the edges quickly AND get a far superior and smoother cut, use a 100 grit belt on a belt sander to knock off the corners and start the desired profile on the blank.

Then go to the lathe with a carbide r2 insert. When I finish with the r2, even on gloss black acrylic blanks, I can go straight micromesh.
 
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