Hey guys,
Been reading this post and doing some research. I have a book my mother in law gave me by a guy named Dale Nish called creative woodturning. In it, he talks about a shearing cut versus a scraping cut. This thread got me to thinking about it and I decided to research it further. I don't turn strikers or even pot calls for that matter, but I can see the problems with turning a long, thin piece of wood. According to Nish, this shearing cut is how professional turners use a skew to cut spindles (he says they use a gouge this way as well, have not tried it yet) Basically, to do this I turned my stock round, and held the skew on the tool rest, cutting edge perpindicular to the wood, with the tip of the skew above the stock. The skew held at an angle it would not cut, then I change the angle of the skew until it started cutting. This produces shavings, kind of like what comes out of a planer. The depth of cut is controlled by the angle of the skew. The sharper the angle, the deeper the cut. I tested this out on a few different types of wood, and it works well on maple. On Bocote and tulipwood, I found I had to take lighter cuts or the wood chips out. I also figured out to keep the skew ancored on the toolrest befor trying to start the cut (duh) This method requres a lot less pressure aginst the wood than scraping the wood, and makes a much cleaner cut than scaping. I also got no chatter doing this. This should be the ticket for turning thin, long pieces as there is virtually no force applied against the wood. Does this make sense? If not, I will take pics and put together a tutorial on it, may take a bit as I am real busy right now.
Hope this helps,
rwehuntn
