john lucas
Chuck I did a test several years ago with a couple of other turners. We used skews ground from 25 to almost 90 degrees between the faces. To a point the blunter tools were less catchy but require a lot more movement of the handle to finish off a square sided bead. That made them less catchy for larger details more catchy at the bottom of the bead. They also required more forward pressure for planing which leads to more chatter on thin spindles.
The 25 degree cuts like butter and is great for planing cuts. It also requires less handle movement for turning beads. However it was a little more grabby as you round the corner on a bead.
35 degrees or thereabouts seems to be a good between setting. sharp enough to cut clean with very little pressure and blunt enough to be more controllable.