For roughing tasks, the cutter should have a 25° bevel, and the saddle should be tilted to about 40°, as shown in the above photo. If there is an obstruction and you need more handle clearance, loosen the clamping band, raise the saddle up to about 30° and re-tighten the clamping band screw to 10 lb-in maximum torque. For small hand-held carvings, the saddle may be locked in the straight ahead position, or at whatever angle best suits the task and your own preference. For finishing, use a 45° bevel, and tilt the head about 15°.
For easiest cutting, the shave should be pulled at about 45° to the grain direction. If you encounter wild grain, rotate your wrist so the side of the cutting edge (rather than the middle) contacts the work piece. This imparts a skew-cutting action which helps to cut the wood fibers before they can begin to split or chip-out. If the tool is hard to pull or seems to dig-in, change the direction of the cutting path. When the shave is riding its conical bevel during a cut, it inherently generates a smooth and perfectly faired curve. If it seems bouncy or feels ‘catchy’, you need to increase your down-force on the bevel.
To generate a faired 3-dimensional surface, it is only necessary to shave across previous tool paths at an angle between 45° and 90° until the older tool paths are just cleaned away. As the surface approaches its final finished form, criss-crossing the surface with lighter and lighter cuts will refine the contour and leave only shallow tool marks to be scraped and sanded away later. Use of a low-angle work light (shining across the surface rather than at it) will highlight any high spots, so they can be shaved selectively as needed. The tool provides very sensitive feedback, so even persons with impaired vision can achieve perfect contours working only by feel.
