How Many Mallets Do I Need?

These things round between $40 and $90. They weigh about a pound. This is in Rock Maple. I have one in some exotic wood I purchased years ago.

Yesterday I started my third. Why three?

Well, it is much more likely that I will have more than three.

This simple wood turning is a great way to turn small logs into wood chips. In doing so, I’m learning how to do wood turning.

I’ve watched a half dozen videos on how to use a skew to rapidly turn a rough piece round. Most of what I’ve accomplished is catches and ouches.

A catch is when the chisel catches in the wood and the chisel has a great deal of force applied, rapidly. If you are holding the chisel correctly, with a light controlling grip, nothing bad happens. It is scary, loud, and your chisel will move.

If you have a death grip on the chisel, it is much worse. In that case, you can throw the wood out of the lathe, you can have a piece of wood ripped out of the work, and you can feel the jolt to the bottom of your soul.

The tool I would like to learn is the skew chisel. This is a straight chisel, no curve, 1/2″ to 1.5″ wide and about 1/4″ thick. It is sharpened on both sides to an edge.

I’ve watched a few videos on how to do this right. And I’ve been failing.

Yesterday I made some real progress. The first thing I learned is that the speed at which you advance the chisel is dependent on the surface speed of the work.

My lathe is a light weight, only a hundred or hundred fifty pounds. If the work is out of balance, it will vibrate the entire lathe. You fix this by slowing the lathe down.

The slower it turns, the lower the surface speed. This means that when doing a pealing cut, you have to slowly work inward because you have an interrupted cut. If you advance too quickly, when the high spot comes around at speed, you will be cutting too deeply, which is a type of catch.

It just takes time to get most of the high spots worked down enough that you can turn up the speed. I’m still running it to slowly.

So I’m slowly turning this rough-cut log into something of value to me, and learning skills as well. I’m doing ok with the peeling cut — now. I’m also doing better on the shearing cut.

The thing about the shearing cut is that it leaves a nearly finished surface. It only takes a very light touch up with the sand paper to take it to a finished product.

Now to take this skill to the treadle lathe at The Fort.