After I went back to read the Darlow book, I also read Conover's discussion of cutting coves in Fine Woodworking's Turning supplement from a few years ago, which gave me a little better sense of what the feel of riding the bevel through the cut should be like. I also re-read Peter Galbert's section on cutting coves from FWW #233, and was reminded of how a motion can be made smoother by starting with the hands in a less comfortable position, then flowing to a more natural one.
Remembered to take a before picture this time. Note the spiral catches in the middle section.
Right out of the gate, a lot felt better. The overall surface quality is much better already. I am still struggling with initiating the cut on the right side, particularly the later, higher angle starts. On the right hand side of 6, there is one spiral catch. It is actually something of a problem on all three of these, the edge is a little ragged, but it is definitely worse on the right side.
For 6, I really tried to be assertive on the right side, to match the deeper cut that comes more easily on the left side. Predictably enough, that produced the catch.
With the catch, it was really hard to re-establish a continuous curve to the right shoulder, although the overall angle doesn't look too bad. Once initiated cleanly, I am getting a better cut, longer shavings are spinning off and the surface is much better than in the first session.
At this point, I think I am getting most of the mechanics in my head. My major questions really have to do with where I want to be angling the flute, and therefore riding the bevel, at what point in the cut - especially the start. But I think most of my problems are hands, not head, so to speak. Just getting the repetitions in should result in some improvement within a session - and the main reason for doing these posts is to look at my work carefully afterwards.
Looking at the one above, it is fairly obvious how much better I was with a skew chisel when I did the fillets, compared to when I did the beads - the fillets removed every second bead, and have much cleaner surfaces.
The rocky road to improvement. Still working on initiating the cut, but trying different hand positions to get symmetrical rolls. Nasty spiral catch obliterates the number 9.
Cove 7 really shows me struggling, I have managed to reverse the left-right problem, with a slow sloppy taper down on the left. Cove 8 suddenly gets it all together. Good surface, clean shoulders especially the right hand side, good symmetry. How...did I do that? Just need to clean up that entry on the left....
Dammit. Time to call it a night before it gets frustrating. Trying to fix the one problem from 8, I am making the initiation problem a lot worse - big spiral catch. The shoulder on the right is ragged too, which leads to a different angle down. At times, I seem to be trying to ride the wrong part of the bevel for the direction I am trying to cut.
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