As to why some big name turners don't use scrapers for roughing, I would speculate that they just have never seen it done that way. At the Symposium in Atlanta a few years back, I went to the Woodworker's Emporium booth to test drive a Vic. Stuart Batty and Christian (owner of WE) were behind me and I was roughing with my Big Ugly tool. Stuart's eyed got as big as a full moon, and he was miming my back and forth motion that I use when roughing with a scraper. He had never seen a scraper used like that before. This technique means that the cutting edge never comes off the wood, compared to the gouge that starts at the top, pushes through to the bottom, comes off the wood, and repeats. The scraper is a forgotten tool. There are those who claim that a scraper doesn't cut, it scrapes. Well, I can get nice long ribbons of shavings with my scrapers, either very heavy or thin enough to see through. You can't do that without cutting. Perhaps more accurate would be that it does a scraping cut. The two main comments I get after demonstrating how I use scrapers are "I may have to reconsider my opinion about scrapers" and "I have never seen a scraper used like that". I consider myself to be very efficient with a gouge. A gouge can't keep up with a scraper for bulk heavy duty stock removal when roughing out bowls.
How big and how wide of a shaving you take off depends on how big of a cutting edge you have on your tool, how hard you push, and how much power your lathe has. I haven't met a lathe I couldn't stall with a 3/4 inch scraper or a 5/8 inch gouge. Yes, I am on the Brute Squad...
I quit using the side ground/Irish grind/Ellsworth grinds years ago. Just no use for them. I use a 40/40 for outsides, and down the wall on the inside, and a 60 or 70 degree bevel for the transition and across the bottom of the bowl. Best use for the swept back grind that I can think of is for shear scraping on the outside of the bowl.
Not sure about the comment about needing a shaped tool rest for scraper use. I guess I look at people who prefer straight tool rests for bowls the same way I look at people who have sliding headstocks and don't use them. In bowl lathe position, on the tailstock end, you can stand up straight, and not have to extend your arms out away from your body, which to me means less work and better tool control. Yes, I could use long bed lathe turning technique and get better at it if I worked at it, but don'e see any reason to do so. More than anything else, using a shaped tool rest means you don't have to move your banjo as many times and/or adjust the tool rest. I agree with Stuart, Mike Mahoney, and Glenn Lucas that the inside curved rests like the Oneway and the first one from Robust, both of which were a 1/4 circle arc and had the post on the very end, the post was in the way, and in general they took way more time to adjust to follow the curve of the bowl. The J rest is a step up, but still not up to my standards, so I made my own. With the short bed lathe, and scraper use, yes, the scraper does take a little bit more force to use, but since my arms are in close to my body, there is no abuse of my body in using one. Same as with gouges, you need to learn not to extend out over the tool rest too far, or try to take too big of a bite. That is common sense, which we all know is not very common....
I would not use a scraper for roughing out a natural edge, at least not near the edges as it will tear. I have been accused of being different..... Lamar must be a brother from a different mother....
robo hippy
