Gotta disagree with Ken a touch. High speed is not a requirement, and in my
opinion, not even desirable. It doesn't improve your edge, and the
increased kinetic energy may help the wood flex away from an improperly
placed gouge, starting a chatter pattern. You position your tool _firmly_
on a close toolrest, set the heel so it touches the wood as it comes round,
then move the handle until the edge enters the wood before advancing in the
direction of cut. As you become more familiar with the cutting angle for
your gouge of preference, you'll be able to start the nose directly. To
visualize, rotate the piece by hand and take a few shavings to see what's
working.

Oh yes, rubbing the bevel doesn't mean at right angles to it. That's
chopping. Rubbing parallel to the point of contact gives you your best
shaving, one with a clean exit. Depending on your gouge choice you may
strive for a continuous twisted shaving, produced when you're shearing,
versus dust and shave when you're chopping. Let the rotating wood do the
work by coming to your edge, don't push the tool.

"Ken G." wrote in message
...
Greg wrote:

No reason for the jigs, but I want to practice *turning* the end
result as well. I am assuming that segmented bowls - or worse, an
open segmented bowl - may place varying (even impact) loads on the
tool, and that a technique has to be developed to compensate for
varying wood grain, hardness, and the transition from wood to air.

When your wood is spinning at hundreds of RPM's, it's going too fast for
you to think about "the transition from wood to air"--for God sakes,
don't be so cerebral about it! :-)
Sure, the tool technique is just slightly different for interupted cuts
compared to solid wood. You are still rubbing the bevel as recommended
by all the books, videos, and websites on gouge technique, but with some
restraint on advancing the tool into the cut. If your speed is high
enough, and tool is very sharp with an appropriate grind, it will be a
piece of cake with the biggest difference from turning solid wood being
the sound of the cut.