Thread: Skewing Around

Originally Posted by Paul39

I do bowls, and a few mushrooms and weed pots. The only spindles I make are tool handles for myself, 99% of which have a chunk out or an unintended decorative spiral, which are partially sanded out.

I have often commented to folks here that if one spends 100 hours turning one becomes pretty good.

Last week I tried making drum sticks for a friend from some chair spindles that were too nice to burn but I couldn't find a use for. Nice tapered, hard, straight grained wood.

I honed my best accursed skew and had a go. Zip, zip, nice taper on the lower end with a proper ball on the end, carefully sliced almost through on the tailstock end, lightly sanded, applied Tung Oil, buffed, let dry, removed from lathe and finished the ends.

Then I made two more pairs. Apparently I have spent enough hours making spindles.

And it only took 4 years and 4 months to get there.

Keep practising.

Originally Posted by

Keep practising.

I suspect all the hours of everyone on this forum put together would not equal the hours you have spent on spindles.

I really like the silky smooth surface I get with the accursed skew. I have noticed it is easier with dry, hard, straight grained timber with no knots or nails.

The bowl gouge handle on top in the photo below is one I made from a piece of white cedar. Only had one catch which I turned off to make the taper on the back.

Someone in the neighborhood had uprooted a bush with a one meter root ball. I took the truck there but couldn't get it in.

I tied a rope to it and dragged it three blocks home without the police noticing, and cut it up into turning sized pieces on the street.

"I tied a rope to it and dragged it three blocks home without the police noticing, and cut it up into turning sized pieces on the street."

That sounds like something I would do Paul, glad you got away with it.

Originally Posted by ticklingmedusa

"I tied a rope to it and dragged it three blocks home without the police noticing, and cut it up into turning sized pieces on the street."

That sounds like something I would do Paul, glad you got away with it.

You and me both

I know why I get the spiral from the skew. It does happen every now and then when I tell myself a very light cut, the last one, just one more light cut.

Originally Posted by Paul39

I tied a rope to it and dragged it three blocks home without the police noticing, and cut it up into turning sized pieces on the street.

I'd have been prepared to drag it a lot further than that

Gentlemen, this is beginning to sound like a conspiracy.

Originally Posted by Paul39

Then I made two more pairs. Apparently I have spent enough hours making spindles.

And it only took 4 years and 4 months to get there.

So, is that after getting 3 pairs of drumsticks you've had enough of working with the Skew or after 4 years 4 months you've finally managed to start to understand how it works.

I'm with - keep practising, it'll come!

Originally Posted by dr4g0nfly

So, is that after getting 3 pairs of drumsticks you've had enough of working with the Skew or after 4 years 4 months you've finally managed to start to understand how it works.

I'm with - keep practising, it'll come!

After 4 years & 4 months of practicing I made a few spindles without a chunk out or a spiral.

I have lots of tools to rehandle. I have big hands that cramp with small handles, arthritis creeping on, and ever bigger lathes to use. Big, fat handles and long tools make it all more comfortable.

Originally Posted by ticklingmedusa

That sounds like something I would do Paul, glad you got away with it.

Is that behind the wheelchair I thought I was only that crazy

Since my last post here I have had somewhere between 20 & 30 hours with the maybe-not-so-accursed skew. I have gotten to the point where I grab a skew and cut right handed, left handed, zip, zip, zip, with rare catches or spirals.

Handle before last was a nice straight grained clear walnut table leg with square at the top, ball, tapered flute, ball, small square, and short round leg.

I knocked off the big lumps with a sharpened lawn mower blade and played with assortment of skews. El cheapo short handled Chinese; rusty, what I discovered was Japanese, with blade protruding from handle at 10 degrees; no name Sheffield steel that I had put on a proper long fat handle; and my recently acquired used Henry Taylor. The first three 3/4 inch, HT 1 inch.

The Japanese was rounded with multiple facets, the HT was awful when I bought it so it had a nice new bevel from the Tormek, the other two had good factory bevels. All were honed before starting and frequently while turning on a diamond impregnated steel plate.

All cut nicely for a while, the Chinese, probably high carbon, the shortest. The Japanese almost as long as the no name Sheffield, and the HT the longest.

The weight and length of handle makes a big difference. I usually don't take the spindle down to perfectly round with the lawn mower blade, so the weight and big handle keeps down the bouncing. I made an oval handle from a too-pretty-to-burn piece of quilted maple, so there was an interrupted cut in the whole process. The HT was very good there, no catches, no spirals.

I get the walnut down to a nice taper, leaving the flutes in the middle, round over the front and make the space for the ferrule, and round off the back a bit. I stop and go feed the boiler, on the way composing in my head how well the handle has gone, no catches, no spirals, baby skin smooth finish.

I come back and think the back end is just a bit rough still, so start a cut about 1/2 inch from the end and go down hill. About half way down zhuik!!, the accursed skew climbs up and I get a nice DEEP spiral about 3 inches long. I just burst out laughing.

As this was a leg, there was a hole for a caster, into which I had put a 60 degree center. Along side there was a screw hole which I had not noticed, the heel of the skew dropped into that hole half way down the slope and rode it up and across the spindle.

I shaved off about half of the spiral and shortened up the end without further incident, lightly sanded and finished it.

Another used Henry Taylor tool I bought was marked Osolnik. It has a shaft the same size at the skew but is beveled on one side straight across. This honed and placed right down on the tool rest and the handle carefully raised will remove any out of round or bumpy places, and can correct where the accursed skew has taken out a chunk big enough for a bowl blank.

The Japanese skew is my dirty work skew for making spigots, and starting part offs. It has a curved cutting edge and I found that running that edge parallel to the spindle with the tool right down on the rest, I can do long planing cuts and not have the toe take out a chunk.

It does not do as well using the toe to cut a grove and it tends to climb more than the straight across bevel when rounding over.

I hope the above will be of some help to those starting and some amusement to old hands.

Originally Posted by ticklingmedusa

Gentlemen, this is beginning to sound like a conspiracy.

No. Just the annual meeting of the Scroungers Union!!

I have about 40 - 50 hours of spindle making since I started this thread.

I have made tool handles of bed posts, table legs, chair legs, bought cut offs, fire wood, wood working shop scraps, and limbs fallen from trees.

I have even made a couple or oval handles for hammers.

The wood was Walnut, Cherry, Rock Maple, Curly Maple, White Oak, Eastern Cedar, Red Oak, Dogwood, Locust, and several pieces of hard heavy mystery timber.

Several days ago I stuck a piece of timber in the lathe, grabbed my utility skew, honed it, and made a handle. Just like that.

The same thing happened about two years ago with a bowl gouge after I had been turning bowls for about two years.

My collection of skews are now skews, not accursed skews.

Originally Posted by Paul39

I have about 40 - 50 hours of spindle making since I started this thread.

I have made tool handles of bed posts, table legs, chair legs, bought cut offs, fire wood, wood working shop scraps, and limbs fallen from trees.

I have even made a couple or oval handles for hammers.

The wood was Walnut, Cherry, Rock Maple, Curly Maple, White Oak, Eastern Cedar, Red Oak, Dogwood, Locust, and several pieces of hard heavy mystery timber.

Several days ago I stuck a piece of timber in the lathe, grabbed my utility skew, honed it, and made a handle. Just like that.

The same thing happened about two years ago with a bowl gouge after I had been turning bowls for about two years.

My collection of skews are now skews, not accursed skews.

See what practise does? Another convert to the "Black Arts."