https://www.faceedgewoodworking.com/

I like to make my money go as far as possible. I knew I wanted a lathe and kept my eyes open. I picked up this Record DML 24 lathe via Gumtree for £100. I didn't "need" it at the time, but it was a very reasonable price so I picked it up.

Fast forward six months or so and it's now set up and ready to go! I took a day of tuition with a wood turner https://www.beechtreedesigns.co.uk/. Sandra was able to show me the ropes and lessen the anxiety of shoving a chisel into a spinning piece of wood.

This weekend I took the time to try the skew. This wasn't a tool we covered during my training, but I was eager to give it a try. I was nervous as the skew has a reputation! Although my practice piece isn't great I really got a feel for the versatility of the skew and just how clean you can get the surfaces.

The lack of noise and the extra dimension a lathe can bring to your woodworking means it's ideally suited to the home workshop. If your budget is tight, try my approach of just keeping an eye out in local classifieds, Facebook marketplace etc.

You don't need many tools and I actually just sharpened my skew on the fine side of my Norton India.

That aside I'm working on a Mini Mule chest in cherry. There's no rush with it, it'll be done when it's done!

Hopefully I can share my Dovetail method with you. Because the internet needs another Dovetail article, right? 😂.