Round or square hardened and tempered steel bits have been held in
sliding tool posts and boring bars for machining metal and inserted in
softer steel hand held bars for turning wood for a long long time. I
imagine that Oland popularized his/her version hence the name for
inserted bit woodturning tools. AFAIK Darrell Feltmate pioneered using
inserted bit tools for spindle and face woodturning applications in
addition to the usual hollowing (boring) techniques. Cutting not just
scraping.

A short length of a round tool bit can be used in another way for metal
work that I've not tried or seen used in spindle woodturning. Instead of
inserting the bit at various angles in the horizontal plane of the
boring bar, short bits can be attached to the end face of the boring bar
tilted at various angles in the vertical plane. A portion of the bit's
top radius being the cutting edge offered on center. The tool is
probably long outmoded, but Leo V. and others can better explain or
picture this.

bar-- =======/--bit (side view)


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