Alan Lacer's Skew

Near the first of this month I ran across a friend of mine(Steve Schwartz) that I used to play racquet ball with. It turns out(pun intended) that he is the upcoming(2012) president of the Capital Area Woodturners (CAW). He invited me to their next meeting which was this past Saturday. Alan Lacer was the guest presenter. I went, I learned, I improved my knowledge.

I say all this to tell you that if you ever have a chance to see Alan, GO see him. He is not pretentious, and has a lot of good information to share.

This particular talk of his was centered around the veritable Skew Chisel. I expect most of us hate the thing. He clearly explained the reasons for the follies of most users and how to avoid them. Just so you’ll know, he has a particular grind that makes his skew a much more friendly, and much more useful tool.

In his presentation, he also talked about the honing of lathe tools. Yeah, I expect that most turners don’t hone their tools. I was one of them. I’m now in the camp that it probably is a good idea on many levels. He sells a very nice diamond slip hone that fits in your apron pocket. I am in the process of determining if I want one of those or an alternate.

In the last part of his presentation, he made one of his hook tools from some tool steel right there in front of us. He ground the shape, heated & bent it, hardened it(via oil quenching), and then annealed it. He then sharpened it and showed its use on the inside bottom of a bowl.

I tell ya again, if you get a chance to go see him, TAKE IT. You won’t be disappointed. On his website , he has the handouts for his skew and the hook tool. He also has DVDs that cover the same information that he covered Saturday. A LOT of great information. I highly recommend his practices and techniques. They actually WORK!

-- Backer boards, stop blocks, build oversized, and never buy a hand plane--