Richard Raffan turns an Ego Stick 

Eh, I dunno. For real skill, there needs to be some ego. True humility is, not feeling unworthy or having a low self esteem, or self worth, but, rather, having an accurate and frank assessment of one's skills and position/authority. This may boost one's ego, but it certainly keeps one humble too. A simple mistake would be catastrophic, but truly educational. A success, like this, reaffirms and demonstrates skills. Any spot where you feel unsure or nervous is a spot where you need more practice. Skill Stick is an equally good name for this as Ego Stick, IMHO.

​@@taitano12good points. Skill testing stick?

@@gbwildlifeuk8269 Ooh, good one. A student making a "testing stick" or, as you put it a "skill testing stick" as a final.

A lot of people will agree with you that facework is relatively easy once you come to terms with skew chisels and turning spindles.

I agree@@RichardRaffanwoodturning

#egostickchallenge 😂

Wonderful to hear that, Kurt. I've never heard of Tipuana Tipu, but looking it up it sounds ideal.

I done a number of videos turning small stuff. I can't turn anything over 295mm diameter on my Vicmarc VL300.

I used to turn these at the end of day-long demos when people were getting punch-drunk with information and I'd often have students turning them in 5-day hands-on workshops.

I taught myself to use skew chisels reducing 2-in / 50mm squares about 200mm /8-in long to ever finer spindles until they broke. I turned the squares to round, then cut grooves, turned those into beads, then removed those and repeated the exercise on a smaller diameter. When the spindle breaks it's no big deal. These spindles are not nearly as difficult as they look and are excellent skill builders no matter what your end goal in turning wood is.

@@RichardRaffanwoodturning Thank-you for the response. That alleviates the one concern I had. Really appreciate these videos. Like all things worth learning, in theory this seems simple, but it is the nuances such as tool presentation, motion, and tilt that make this a skill only acquired through practice and repetition. Between your videos and Allan Batty's video, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this tool.

Yep, I was thinking the same thing. In my hands, it would be a "humbling stick", or probably, to be more precise, a batch of "humbling toothpicks"

These are a good exercise and a project many of my hands-on students found isn't quite as difficult as it might look.

Dysoxylum fraserianum, commonly known as rosewood or rose mahogany.

I learnt the basics of turning using skew chisels and gouges to reduce 2-in / 50mm squares about 200mm /8-in long to ever finer spindles until they broke. I turned the squares to round, then cut grooves, turned those into beads, then removed those and repeated the exercise on a smaller diameter. When the spindle breaks it's no big deal. These spindles are not nearly as difficult as they look and are excellent skill builders no matter what your end goal in turning wood is.

This is a few inches longer. Spillikins blanks are 10mm square x 220mm long. The longest I did in club demos are around 400mm /16-in. x ⅛-in or less. It's easier to start with thicker blanks.

@@RichardRaffanwoodturning Thank you so much. I shall make a note of this for when I'm ready to try one.