You have had very good advice to find an experienced turner to show you some basic lathe techniques and some tool sharpening tips. In the interim, suggest you spend $20 and get Keith Rowley's book : Woodturning
- a Foundation Course. Keith goes into all the basics including what the various tools are, what they are used for, how they are used and how to sharpen them. He even shows how to make a simple tool support to postion the tool in front of your bench grinder. You can continue frustrating yourself and doing dangerous things or you can get some good information and have fun. Bet you didn't learn your other woodworking by yourself.......at least not totally.