Richard Findley sets his first skew chisel skill-building practice exercises
Last week I introduced my new series, which will focus on building skew chisel skills. The aim of the introduction was to encourage you to dust off your skew(s), sharpen it and begin to make friends with it. This series is designed to be as accessible as possible, so use whichever skew you already own. If you have a few, try them all and you will most likely begin to favour one. The skew is a very personal tool so everyone seems to like a slightly different one best. Throughout the series you will see me use a selection of tools in the pictures although my personal preference is my Signature beading and parting tool.
To make this as accessible as possible, I called in at my local DIY superstore and bought a pack of planed softwood. There is usually a selection of softwood available – choose ‘redwood’ rather than ‘whitewood’ as it is better quality. I bought a pack of four lengths of 1.8m x 44mm x 44mm (6ft of planed 2×2 in old money) which cost me less than £20. There are knots in the timber, there always are in softwood, but try to select the cleanest pack you can and consider this an investment – you will turn it all into shavings and hopefully learn a lot about your skew chisel on the way.
Starting
Lengths of around 200mm are a good place to start as they are shorter than your usual toolrest. Cut around any major knots. Pieces with small knots can be saved for later when you have built confidence and knots will pose less of a problem for you. Remember that knots are only wood, so they will turn, but because they are endgrain, they will resist being cut more than the rest of the timber. Using clean wood will make life easier to begin with.
Mount the first piece between centres and rough it down to a cylinder. At this stage I would recommend doing that with a spindle roughing gouge rather than a skew – 44mm is borderline as to whether I would use as a skew to rough down. Roughing with a skew is a heavy planing cut, so only try it once you are very comfortable with the planing cut, which I will come to later.
One question that comes up time and again is: ‘How high should the toolrest be?’ This is difficult to answer precisely because there are several variables, including your height, the height of the lathe and the diameter of the timber being turned. As a guide, if you look at the end of the spindle and imagine it is a clock face, you should be cutting at around 10-11 o’clock, which can be seen quite well in picture 5.
Throughout the turning for this article, I was turning at 1850rpm. If you feel more comfortable you might want to run the lathe at more like 1200 or 1500rpm, but I see no reason to run any faster.
Peeling cut
The simplest cut to make with a skew or parting tool is a peeling cut. It can be done with any skew, but a straighter skew will be easier than a very skewed factory grind. As discussed in part one, a factory grind is usually around 25° from square, where I recommend a much straighter tool, my Signature tool being completely square.
A peeling cut is mostly used with callipers to size different parts of a spindle. The main thing to be aware of is that all cuts with a skew should be bevel-rubbing cuts rather than scraping, so although it might appear that a peeling cut is done by simply pushing the tool into the wood, it isn’t. The tool should slice through the timber to make it as efficient as possible.
The handle begins low and as you lift it and gently apply a forward pressure, it will begin to cut. The main thing is to continue that forward motion combined with the lift of the handle so the tip arcs toward the centre of the wood.
This is easiest with a narrow parting tool. My Signature tool is 10mm wide and works very well for this task. You could try it first with a parting tool if it helps to get the feel for the cut, although parting tools often have a much steeper bevel angle than a skew. It is possible to do this with a more skewed skew chisel, although it is more difficult. It will naturally form an angled cut, but by twisting the tool slightly you can produce a straighter cut – this will take a little practice though and a good understanding of the toolrest support under the cutting edge, which I will come to later.
Measuring
The main purpose of a peeling cut is to establish set diameters at certain points along a spindle, especially when turning sets of spindles, legs, finials or whatever. This means that you need to combine the peeling cut action with callipers – either Vernier, which is my preference, or spring, which I use for larger-diameter work. Whichever callipers you choose, make sure the tips are rounded. Straight from the box they are often quite sharp, so get a file and round them off to make them safer to use. If you don’t feel comfortable using them with the lathe running, stop the lathe and check your progress.
I begin with both hands on the tool to get the cut started. Once the edge is engaged, your front hand can carefully rest the callipers at the rear of the work. Notice I say ‘rest’ – this is a very light operation, you should not force the callipers against the wood. If you are marking the spinning timber with the callipers then you are pressing too hard. Just the weight of the callipers against the wood is sufficient. As soon as the diameter is reached the calliper will drop over the wood and you can stop cutting.
Set some sizes on your callipers and try this out on your first piece of wood. Make some 30mm-diameter cuts, then some 25mm cuts, then some 20mm cuts until you are comfortable. Use a parting tool, or beading and parting tool, or skew chisel, and see what works best for you. If you find that you prefer a wider, more skewed skew, then you will probably need to use a parting tool for this operation. One of the reasons I like my Signature tool so much is for its versatility, being able to do the job of a skew and a parting tool. Once you have used up a few pieces of wood (don’t be shy, you’ve got loads so use as much as you need) practising peeling cuts and sizing with callipers and you are feeling comfortable, we can move on to planing.
Planing
The next exercise is to do a series of straight planing cuts. If you are left-handed, as I am, you will find it most natural to work from left to right (headstock to tailstock); for a right-hander it will be more natural to work right to left (tailstock to headstock). Initially, just focus on your natural direction, we’ll come to going the other way shortly.
With the wood roughed into a cylinder you can stop the lathe and find the best cutting position by rotating the lathe by hand. Depending on how skewed your skew chisel is, the exact presentation will vary. In picture 9, a factory ground oval skew can be presented almost square to the wood to produce a shaving. The skewed grind produces the shearing cut. If you compare the presentation of my Signature tool, which is ground square across, I produce the shearing angle by holding the tool at more of an angle, but at the point of contact between the wood and the edge of the tool, the same shearing angle is produced and so the same curly shaving is the result. Depending on how skewed your chisel is, you will need to adjust the exact angle of presentation.
To ensure smooth, catch-free planing, you should identify the ‘safe zone’ on the edge of your tool. Find the middle and anything below this is safe. Cutting above the middle line will risk a catch, the higher above the line you go the higher the risk of a catch. Some turners recommend a wider tool because the ‘safe zone’ or ‘sweet spot’ is bigger, the only drawback is that if you go past the centre on a wider tool the catch can be bigger too. Notice in picture 12, my Signature tool is the same width as the ‘safe zone’ on the 19mm chisel, which means on a narrower tool you can use nearly all of the edge without a catch.
Unsupported edge
You will often read of or hear from demonstrators that cutting above the centre leads to a catch because of an unsupported edge, but what does that mean? When planing, the tool is presented on its bottom corner, so if you are cutting below the centre, the forces of the cut go straight down, through the tool and into the toolrest, so the tool is stable because it is supported. In picture 13 you can see that if the forces from cutting are near the upper part of the edge – where the pencil is pressing down in the picture – there is nothing beneath the edge to support it, the tool wants to twist down and a catch follows. This is using a part of the edge that is unsupported, so if you mark up your skew with a marker pen and aim to use a part of the edge below the centre you will have a controlled cut.
Rotate the wood by hand and place the tool against the wood. Feel where a shaving is produced. Rotate the tool and feel the twisting force as the cut goes above the centreline. If you can’t raise a shaving by rotating the wood against the tool, go and sharpen the tool again. Try different positions until it feels comfortable and, when you feel ready, fire up the lathe and have a go.
ABCs
Often quoted are the ABCs of turning:
Anchor – the tool is on the rest and ready to make contact in a firm but flexible grip
Bevel – the bevel is brought into contact with the spinning wood, so the tool won’t cut but there is initial contact and bevel control
Cut – by lifting the handle just a little more the edge comes into contact with the wood and produces a shaving
This is a good place to start, but then what? You need to move sideways. The best way is to have soft, flexible knees and shift your weight from one leg to the other, moving the tool smoothly along the rest as you go. Smooth is the key – any jolting or jerking in your movement will result in a lump or bump in the work. Often, I see people rotating their upper body to achieve this movement, but that results in being unable to maintain the cut as your body rotates away from the work. Your arms should be held against your body and your body and back hand should be doing the moving, with your front hand offering some stability between the tool and toolrest. Make sure you aren’t putting too much pressure on with that front hand, which can cause chatter and vibration. The front hand should also not be moving the tool along the rest, just offering support.
All of your movements should be smooth and calm. There is no need to rush through the cut. Give the tool time to cut and you will be left with a silky smooth surface; rush through the cut and you will leave ridges. An excellent and relevant saying I first heard from my friend Glenn Lucas is that ‘slow is smooth and smooth is fast’.
If you are experiencing chatter and vibration, ease back on the pressure you are applying to the wood and relax. It can be helpful to round over the heel of your bevel, just as you might on a bowl gouge, as the angle at the heel produced by grinding can add to any tendency to cause chatter.
Planing the other way
Once you have turned a few more blanks into shavings and become comfortable with planing in your natural direction, the next step is to go the other way. There are two options here – you either swap hands or change your stance. Being able to swap hands can be useful in turning at times, but I don’t know any production turners who will swap hands to work in the other direction, they will all adjust their stance. I suggest you have a go with both approaches and see what works for you.
When you change your stance to work in the other direction, several things happen. First, you will turn your body slightly to face the new direction of travel and the end of the tool handle will usually rest against your stomach. This gives excellent control with the movement naturally coming from your body. Your front hand will rest on the tool for stability and you will move forwards with the tool presented to the wood as before, only in the other direction. It will feel weird to begin with but stick with it and you’ll find it works very well. Once again, turn several pieces of timber into shavings until you get used to working in the opposite direction. This is important because you need to be able to work in both directions.
Tapers
Once you are comfortable planing in a straight line in both directions, the next task is to produce a taper in both directions. This is just like planing in a straight line only this time you need to add a little lift and slight forward pressure to the tool. It is important to keep the cut in the safe zone of your cutting edge, but by lifting the handle as you slide along the rest, a taper will begin to form. Play around with this and get a feel for it, first in your natural direction and then in the other direction. Once you feel like you can produce a straight taper, you are ready for Exercise 1.
Exercise 1
Now to put all of your practice to use. Cut a piece of your pine to 200mm long, mount between centres and turn to a cylinder. You can plane this to a smooth, straight cylinder and it should be around 40mm in diameter. Measure in 25mm from each end and mark with a pencil line, then find the centre and mark 10mm each side of the centre. Set your preferred callipers to 25mm and do a peeling cut at both ends to produce a tenon up to the line on each end. Now do a tapered planing cut from the top line, down to the tenon, leaving a 20mm flat in the centre at the full diameter. Do your natural side first then the other side. Your first one might be a bit wavy, you might over cut into the tenon at the ends, that’s okay on your first. Now do a second and a third until you have those tapers perfectly straight between the lines at the top and the tenons at the bottom.
Exercise 2
The second exercise is the opposite of Exercise 1. Cut another 200mm piece of wood and turn to a cylinder, finish with a straight planing cut. Mark up as the first with 25mm ends and a 20mm wide central flat. This time, turn the centre down to 25mm diameter and cut tapers down to it. This should be feeling quite simple now if you have worked through the stages in the article. The ultimate test to see if you’ve done this well is to put your turning from Ex1 next to your turning from Ex2 and see if they fit together. They should (see picture 21), but if they don’t, you have plenty more pieces of wood to practise on.
Tip
To keep the corner at the bottom of the taper crisp, adjust your planing cut as you slowly approach the flat section from cutting on the edge to cutting right on the tip. This will give precision where it is needed up to the detail.
Exercise 3
The final stage, and most advanced cut we’ve done so far, is to take a piece from Ex2 and develop your tapers into a long, sweeping curve. The movement needed to do this is quite subtle, much like the difference between planing a straight line compared to planing a taper. Once again, maintaining the cut in the safe zone of the edge, begin a planing cut, following the taper you have already formed. As you progress, begin to gently rotate the tool while applying slight forward pressure. The rotation is in the opposite direction to the movement, so as you plane to the left, you rotate gently to the right, and as you plane to the right you gently rotate to the left. All movements should be smooth and steady. Sudden, jerky movements are not conducive to smooth, flowing shapes.
Conclusion
I hope you have found this first set of exercises useful and have enjoyed making lots of shavings without too much frustration. Remember, the purchase of the pack of timber is an investment in your skew skills. Don’t worry if some are messy, follow the stages and hopefully you will feel like you are making progress, the cuts coming more naturally and the surface left behind smoother each time. Next week we’ll look at slicing cuts and rolling beads with another set of exercises to practise your skew skills.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICHARD FINDLEY