Round skew 12mm

A skew is going to be a bear to control against a roll because the point will lead into the work if you aren't very high on the circle and guiding on the bevel. Even a straight chisel is tough, though you can skew the trailing edge to protect yourself from digging. I like a shallow flute broad radius gouge for that kind of work. Allows me to deepen progressively while the curve(s) of the edge provide a margin of safety by coming out away from the wood.

Get in close with your toolrest, keep it at or preferably a bit above center to keep yourself from getting under the wood and digging in.

Video of some fat guy using a forged gouge truing the outside of a bowl. Notice how he swings the gouge rather than pushes it when things clatter because they aren't round. Lots easier to control on an anchored swing. A straight edge won't allow you that luxury, only a curved one.

Once the surface is pretty regular the bevel will guide and a shaving so thin you can see through it can be maintained.

Hello Mark,

A skew chisel whether round or otherwise, is not the right tool to use on a bowl. A skew chisel is designed for spindle turning where all of the grain is side grain. A bowl gouge or a round nose scraper are the better choices for bowl work. I personally prefer the bowl gouge for all bowl work. If you simply can't get rid of the ridges with the bowl gouge, a wide, heavy round nose scraper will work very well.

Another nice tool for what you want is made from an old shallow spindle gouge of about one inch width. Grind the bevel on the flute side. When in use, put the flute down onto the tool rest and you have an excellent shear scraper that works on both the inside and outside of the bowl. I prefer this to the flat scraper because of the shearing action that it provides without having to cant you tool off of the tool rest.

Please use that skew to turn spindles, you can get some horrible catches using a skew on a bowl.

Fred Holder

> Once the surface is pretty regular the bevel will guide and a shaving so > thin you can see through it can be maintained. Thanks for the link. I just bought a roughing gouge and was playing with different ways to use it. I settled on a method like the video, but it is good to know I was right.

>> Once the surface is pretty regular the bevel will guide and a shaving so >> thin you can see through it can be maintained. > Thanks for the link. > I just bought a roughing gouge and was playing with different ways to use > it. I settled on a method like the video, but it is good to know I was > right. > Yep, gouge 101 says to take a progressively deeper cut as a progressively thinner shaving. Make sure you use the inherently safe practice of staying physically above centerline and keeping leverage on your side by moving the rest in close as often as you need.