Richard Findley 2025

Richard Findley – Notes from his skew demonstration Richard uses no skew at all on his own skews (ie the sharp edge is at right angles to the length of the tool) Many woodturners regrind tools to have a 7° skew angle rather than the common 25° factory grind. They present tool at an angle to get a roughly 45° angle on the wood. Move the skew with the whole body rather than your arms and use your non-dominant hand just to dampen vibrations. Use an open stance, and the hold chisel against your stomach when planing in the less comfortable direction. Or change hands. Peeling cuts (like a parting tool) are made with an arcing movement up and then down towards the centre of the work piece. Slicing cuts use the longer (if there is one) tip at 90° to a peeling cut The bevel points in direction of travel, so the skew is tilted slightly {2°} and twisted away from the wood so only the tip of the tool touches. You can roll beads with the tip which produces a feathered edge and is more stable. If you lose the feather stop and start over. Don't try to re-acquire the cut midway. Richard recommended practice pieces and made a pair of pieces. One with low centre. One with raised centre. These then fitted into each other. He suggested using red wood (tougher pine from a hardware store) He said sharpening solves most woodturning problems. If you think the tool is not cutting properly, sharpen it.. The tool rest height is adjusted so the skew hits wood at 10-11 o'clock seen end on Err on the high-side with the tool rest, especially when planning You can find more advice on Richard’s media channels, in his Woodturning Magazine series on the skew and in his books. Egg project Use a chocolate egg as a template! E.g. a Kinder Egg. The length of a woodturned egg is 1.4x its width The high point is 5mm below middle in a 70mm egg (standard egg size!) Leave 15mm waste at each end - Too much pressure when parting the ends leaves a ring of compressed fibres that won’t sand out. Leave a stub then sand it away to avoid this.