Bedan vs Skew

From what I hear you say.........................you were using what amounted to a 3/8" skew................

Denis Marier wrote:

You should be able to get about as good of a surface with a sharp Bedan as with the skew, but there are two strikes against the idea that I can think of:

You can become skillful with the skew, with some practice and competent advice. I had been turning for more than 10 years, avoiding the skew. Until finally I bit the bullet and turned a bunch of firewood into shavings getting it figured out. It was brutally frustrating sometimes, having no one standing over my shoulder telling me what I was doing wrong. Trying to negotiate a convex curve towards center, I'd get a little ways then BAM--the skew flew back out, leaving a deep, spiral cut. Try again, I'd get a little further but again, a big catch. Then I'd get almost all the way to center before a catch would happen. This was with pieces of tree limbs, easy turning wood like Box Elder, chucked in a scroll chuck with the tail end free. The trick is to cut using the very end of the edge, either at the tip (the long point) or the heel (the short point)--pushing a ring of shavings along. When making a planing (straight) cut, you can cut a little ways up from the short point's end, but that's an exception. Of course, your skew must be razor sharp, with proper bevels. A good rule of thumb for bevel angles is the length of the bevel should be around 1 1/2 times the thickness of the blade, giving an included angle of about 36 degrees. Ater I finally figured it out after hours of trying, I was able to push the ring of shavings along around a curved end, all the way to center, and would end up with dozens of neatly "woven" little cone-shaped florets of shavings on the floor--it was the coolest thing.

Ken

Ken Grunke wrote: : 2.) The cutting edge's included angle is much more obtuse than a skew, : with a bevel on only one side.

Wouldn't that make the cutting edge more acute, and less obtuse?

-- Andy Barss

Dang...so this is what the Geometry teacher meant when she said you could actually use this stuff in later life... :)

Tim

"Don't be obtuse," he said acutely! One wonders at his angle!

Leif, you're such a square.

I, on the other hand, was recently suffering from the symptoms of rhomboids. Saw the doc this week and all's cleared up with a little Preparation R.

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Hee, hee! Don't worry Owen! It was probably just a passing fancy!