George said:

OK, now use that analytical expertise and ask if you _want_ the shavings to
fly. If they're flying, Newton says they're running from something.

Good point! In defense of my ignorance, however, most of the *flying*
was while roughing the blank. There was still bark attached and chips
ended up everywhere. Then while cutting out the sapwood, I noticed
that the stock removal went faster when they "flew" from the tip of
the roughing gouge. During the actual shaping process, they did slide
down the flute and build up on my hand and on the bench below in great
mountains of curly ribbon waste. There was literally three inches of
curls under my feet by the time I finished. All I could think of was,
"what a waste of wood - what can I do with this stuff". Other than a
handful used to burnish the final turning, it all ended up in a bucket
and the shop-vac.

Only
one place for a properly made shaving to go - down the flute of the gouge,
or, if the gouge is cutting almost vertically, to the floor. While hogging
the interior of a bowl they are carried away from you, but even there you
can keep things neat by grabbing and bagging a double handful each time you
move the toolrest.

Didn't have time for such niceties - I just swept them aside onto the
floor! ;-) Maybe next time!

The thing I really had trouble with was keeping waste cleared out of
the interior of the vessel. Being wet, it seemed to want to build up
around the outer edges of the vessel and was hard to brush out. I
could use the tool in a fashion that would sweep most of them out of
the interior, but there were some stubborn bits.

When you get the twist and drop, three grits of sandpaper will become
superfluous.

I didn't use sandpaper. I did run a green 3M sanding pad over the
surface when finished, and then burnished it with some of the turning
waste. But I found that a gentle, controlled application of various
tools resulted in a very nice finish all on it's own.

I mostly need to get more experience and read up on various tip and
techniques.

Thanks again,

Greg G.