Raleigh Lockhart: Skew Technique

Skews are manufactured in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some have a rectangular cross section and some have an oval cross section. Some are ground with a straight cutting edge and some with a radiused cutting edge. They are available in widths from a quarter inch to over an inch. Raleigh's personal favorite is the ¾ inch radiused skew with a rectangular cross section. A proper grind produces a bevel width about 1½ times the thickness of the blade.

The most common cuts made with skews are planing cuts, peeling cuts, and facing-off cuts. Planing cuts are used in spindle work for roughing stock to roundness and for producing smooth cuts that might be straight, convex or mildly concave. Peeling cuts are used primarily for bulk removal. Facing-off cuts are used to square up the ends of a blank or the refine the quality of those cross-grain cuts.

Planing Cuts. Planing cuts can be made with the toe (long point) of the skew oriented either up or down. Raleigh prefers to do this cut with a radiused skew with the toe down. It is important that the bevel remain in contact with the wood throughout the cut. The catches that cause many turners to fear using the skew occur when the bevel leaves the wood and the cut becomes unsupported. When doing planing cuts with the toe-down orientation the cutting should occur along the 50% of the cutting edge nearest the toe. The tool rest height should be slightly above the center line of the blank.

Peeling Cuts. These cuts are made with the blade of the skew laid flat upon the tool rest and the cutting edge of the skew essentially parallel with the axis of the blank. The wood is contacted with the heel of the bevel and the handle of the tool then gradually raised to engage the cutting edge. As the handle continues to be raised, the cut advances into the wood peeling off a ribbon much like a veneer lathe would peel off a sheet of veneer.

Facing-off Cuts. The blade of the tool is placed on edge on the tool rest so the blade is vertical with the toe down. The bevel is aligned so that it points in the intended direction of the cut (perpendicular to the axis of the blank) with just enough tilt away from the face to be cut to ensure the heel of the cutting edge will not contact the wood. The tool is then advanced into the wood to produce a very thin cut. Several successive passes might be needed to remove enough wood to square up the end of the blank if it initially was considerably out of square.

Shaping a Goblet. Raleigh used the cuts described above to demonstrate how to shape the exterior of a goblet before hollowing. He used a misting water spray to raise the grain of the wood before making his final cuts with the skew. This produces a smoother surface before sanding.

Turning a Tool Handle. Raleigh used only the skew to turn a handle for a ¼" tool shaft. He suggested that turning a project solely with a skew is a good way to learn how to properly use skews. In this demonstration he used a blank that had been pre-drilled to receive the ¼" shaft. He had previously mounted one end of the square blank in a 4-jaw chuck and drilled a hole 3 inches deep in the free end of the blank with a ¼" inch drill bit held in a Jacobs chuck in the tailstock.

He inserted the tool shaft, pointed end first, into the pre-drilled hole in the blank and then mounted the exposed end of the shaft in a collet chuck on the lathe. The blank was then driven as if the tool shaft were a mandrel with the tail stock brought in to stabilize the free end of the blank.

He then used planing cuts to shape the blank with gradual convex and concave cuts to create a profile that was comfortable to his own hand. He created a bead at the butt end of the handle by using bead cuts with the heel of the skew. He used peel cuts to create a tenon at the shaft end of the handle to receive a ferule. He used a brass compression-fitting nut as a ferule so he left the diameter of the tenon just proud of the threads of the nut so the fitting had to be threaded onto the wood (after being removed from the lathe).

After successfully printing the threads into the tenon he removed the nut long enough to apply some thick cyanoacrylate (CA) glue to the tenon then permanently threaded the ferule back onto the tenon.

Raleigh then removed the tool shaft from the handle and used some lacquer to seal the interior of the hole. The shaft was then reinserted into the hole to be used again as a mandrel for the final steps of refining and sanding the handle profile. He then used a ¼" inch round nose scraper to turn off the hex-nut corners of the brass ferule.

A misting spray was used to raise the grain before making the final smoothing cuts on the handle. Care must be taken not to carry brass powder from the ferule onto the wood when sanding since the brass will stain the wood. The handle can then be finished with several coats of lacquer. Raleigh removed the tool shaft from the handle and coated the shaft liberally with beeswax before reinserting it into the finished handle.