Hi Robert

Robert have you ever looked at the bits they use in the wood lathe
copiers ??, I would classify them as scrapers, and are notorious for
their rough finish on softwood.
No I didn't see the NYW as I also rarely waste my time on the boob
tube.
However turning wood with a scraper I do know about, I started turning
as a hobby in the lathe 50ish, never seen anyone turn wood nor the
tools they used
I set out with what I knew in respect of metal turning, (I did never
see anyone turn wood until about 15 years ago) so I made my own tools,
and found the angles that worked for me, my family had/has a
blacksmith/machine shop and car repair/build garage, and I could use a
big old metal lathe to use for my wood turning.
I found real quick that the denser the wood the better a surface I
wood get off my tool, yes all sanding was hand sanding both with or
without the lathe turning.
Always did and still do more bowl turning than spindle turning, and I
could get a decent surface with a scraper on hard wood, still lots of
sanding though.
After I got the bowl and spindle gouges maybe 15 years ago, and
Raffans turning book and learned myself how to use them, I would never
go back to using scrapers as I used to do, if you can get a gouge
positioned so it is able to cut, you will get a much better surface
than using a scraper IMO.
On spindles the skew is by far the better tool for straight grained
softwood, but it does keep you on your toes with (for me) the
occasional #!@** runback screw thread cutting action, that was NOT
intended.
However there are times that the wood will not cut well or that it is
difficult to get the normal tool in a cutting positioning, that is
when the scraper will come to the rescue or the tool in hand is used
in a scraping way.

SO I'll cut if possible and scrape it necessary, and on spindles it is
skew, gouge, or if nothing else works, maybe a scraper, but it better
be hardwood.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo


On Apr 21, 3:18 pm, "
wrote:
Walking through the house to the utility room, I spied Norm at the
lathe! I rarely get to watch any of these woodworking shows, and
don't have much interest in them, but if they mount a piece of wood on
a lathe they have me.

I was surprised to see how much better the end result was for Norm
than his previous efforts. I remember a previous project that had
huge tearout and probably enough heavy sanding to ruin his originally
desired shape or profile. It was awful, and nothing short.

They didn't really show him turning anything, but they did show him
using a flat scraper almost at a 45 angle, on a spindle profile so
they could shoot him at the lathe. He was doing finish cuts, but I
don't know how they could get anything smooth the way he held the tool
with the butt of the handle almost at his waist. I am wondering if
he is up to his old heavy sanding tricks, starting with the 60 grit
finishing gouge.

I only use scrapers to clean up the inside of a bowl or vase. I don't
*ever* remember using a scraper on the outside of a spindle profile.
I rememer some talking about this as they used the scraper to rough,
profile, and finish on the outside, not just refine the finish.

Years ago we had this debate in our club.... scrape or cut spindles?
There were a few scrapers, and sadly I am not sure how they did it.
But they roughed with giant scrapers and then just worked their way
down as needed to smaller ones. They looked at "cutting" with a
spindle gouge as something you did for the last, final details. Some
of these guys turned out nice work, and they knew how to use both
scraper and gouge and preferred the scraper.

So where do you guys land on this? Are you scrapers or cutters when
spindle turning? And of course the big question... why?

Robert