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any great difference?

There's a huge difference. The tools handle differently. The cutter on the Hunter tool has a cuped upper surface. This means 2 things. It cuts cleaner, and it must be used differently. But that's true with all the Hunter tools.
Because of the cupped top surface you have a very sharp cutting edge. In some situations this can lead to catches if not presented to the wood properly. However this is also it's biggest advantage since the sharp cutting edge will give a superior finish to most other tools on the market if presented properly.
The Hunter Hercules tools has the cutter mounted at a forward tilting angle. I'm having a senior moment and can't remember the angle but I think it's 30 degrees. Anyway, this tool can be used in the same fashion as the Easywoodtools. It can also be tilted away from the wood and used in a bevel rubbing fashion to give a cleaner more controlled cut than the scraper type tools. You can tilt the cutter toward the wood and do scraping or even shear scraping cuts. It's a very vesatile tool.
The older #3 and #4 cutters can't be use flat and will give a catch. Used as a bevel rubbing tool they are fantastic and will cut even very tear out prone wood if you don't force the cut.
Mike has several of my video's on his website to show how the tools are used. http://www.hunterwoodturningtool.com/tutorials/

The Easywoodtools are great. There is no learning curve at all much like the Hunter Hercules in this respect. I don't believe they are as veratile and the more experienced turner will get more use out of the Hunter tools.
 
Sorry, I meant to include a brief description of the Easywoodtool cutters. Their cutters are flat on top. They are meant to be used as scrapers only and not bevel rubbing cutters. If they are used with the cutter tip lower than the handle they are extremely easy to use. Just stick them in the hands of a turner and say go with little instruction and they can use them.
You can shear scraper with them which is a process of holding the cutter at an angle to the wood however I've found that they tend to dull to the point that they still work great as scrapers for shaping wood but don't function as shear scrapers that well.
 
CW:

Have a look at the cutting surfaces. Both kinds of tools use indexable carbide cutters, sourced primarily from the metalworking industry (or using the disposable carbide cutters found in some planer-jointer spiral cutting heads), that are attached to variously formed tool shanks. This is where the similarity ends. The Easywood Tools are used primarily in a scraping mode, mostly at center line, with the shank held horizontally. In contrast, the round, polished carbide cutters on Hunter tools are used in a shear-cutting mode, in some cases with the bevel rubbing. Both will remove wood, and both can be fairly efficient cutters when used well; the techniques used differ substantially between them, particularly how the cutter is presented to the wood.

There are youtube videos on-line which show both kinds of tools in action so you can compare them visually. Hopefully at some point you can compare them physically to see and feel the differences and similarities in how they cut, and the quality of the surfaces they leave on the wood.

Rob Wallace
 
The original cutters may differ. Since they come from the machining industry, you may buy what pattern you like best and mount on either handle. I used a Sorby and my Stewart scraper tool to mount various cutters furnished by my local machine shop guy when I was experimenting years ago. Don't use any of them any more on open work, as I get better removal and remainder by cutting, but for narrow-neck I will.
 
With carbide cutters, the pocket for the screw (in the cutter) and surface or pocket it sits in, have to be machined to match. Any difference ,or even a piece of wood underneath, as you tighten the screw, will shatter the cutter. On the Hunter, that is one reason why you don't want to arbitrarily swap out different cutters.
On the the Easy wood, you may get away with more cutter swapping providing the screw fits the cutters pocket, the surface it sits in mates and the back of the pocket doesn't interfere with the cutter
 
What I am about to say is based on limited use of EWT and extensive use of Hunter's. During the learning curve on either brand tool: the "squarish" corners on the EWT present more chances for a corner to dig in. The round edges are more "smooth" than the square ones. Hunter's can dig in, but the shape makes it less likely to happen.
 
The square edge cutters work best for a plunge cut, straight in, and not so well for a sweeping across the bottom and up the side cut. The round nose cutters will work better in a sweeping motion, and fairly well in a plunge cut.

robo hippy
 
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