Reply by David Kirtley

Rum,

He is cutting and not scraping :) Look carefully at how high he is from the center of rotation and how his tool is slicing at an angle. He is just using skew technique with a single beveled tool with rounded corners and calling it a scraper. Nothing wrong with that at all. Skews are awesome. The chips flying speak for themselves. If you are not covered in them, you are doing it wrong. :) The problem beginners have is that they just sit there plunging the tool straight in generating nothing but dust doing nothing but using too much tool pressure and producing a lot of heat and chatter. Many times the piece will just blow up in their face.

Thankfully, I started turning with material that was barely able to support itself. I started with clay on a potter’s wheel. By the time I got to solid material, it was wild to actually be able to push the tool in without everything flying apart.

-- Woodworking shouldn't cost a fortune: http://lowbudgetwoodworker.blogspot.com/