For a thin parting tool I'm using the Chris Stott we seem to have had forever. I rarely need a finish cut from a parting tool. If I do I sharpen the tool and start the parting with the tool tip below center and the handle up. This is using the tool as a negative rake scraper. Once the edge is cut the tool can rotate up into the normal peeling cut I prefer to use with a parting tool.
I'm using the Nick Cook fluted parting tool with the flute on the top side.
My main purpose is to part bowls from it's attachment to a wasteblock and face plate mount. It's done with a cut about 1 1/4 times the width of the tool itself......thus needing two cuts to come to that width. It is done with alternating cuts about 1/2" in depth, one side, then the other.....not one continuous cut on one side, then the other.
....... ooc
Odie,
If you do a lot of glue block mounts you might want to try thick CA GLUE.
to take the bowl off I just break the glue joint with a flat chisel.
The CA splits. Clean the CA off the glue glue block and it it is ready to use on the next bowl and as a jamb chuck to turn the bottom of the bowl. Virtually no wood comes off the glue block or the bowl. Clean the CA off the bottom of the bowl in the finish turning process.
To bond well both surfaces need a shallow concave turned in their face. Two beads of thick CA on the bowl, accelerator on the glue block, my glue block has a 1/8 diameter center hole, I have a tiny hole in the center of the bowl bottom made by twisting a drill bit by hand, a straight wire though the glue block into the hole centers it near perfect. Most important is to give the glue block a turn as it mates up with the bowl. This spreads the CA into the concave giving a wide glue joint with lots of surface contact. Without the turn the CA will cure as thick beads having little surface contact with the bowl and the joint can fail.
I use the tailstock at least to true the surface of the bowl for hollowing. If it is a natural edge bowl I leave the tailstock in place utlil I have turned below the rim.
When I take the tail stock away I give the rim a gentle tap. In hundreds of bowls I have had 2 fall off the glue block with the tap and both times it was because I'd did not turn the glue block as it made contact with the glue. Still have the center points to prep the bowl to remount turn off the glue and re glue.
With a little practice this glue block mount is just about as fast as a chuck mount. And the glue block makes a good jamb chuck for turning off the bottom.
As a bonus this it the one glue joint I would trust with green wood bowls if that aren't on the lathe more than about 40 minutes.
This joint is great for advance beginners who no longer get catches. It will not hold up to a bad catch, but few chuck mounts will hold up to a bad catches either.
Lyle Jamieson showed me this glue block 15 years ago. Lyle told me he learned it from Rud Oslonik
Works great when I don't have wood to give for a chuck mount. And by starting the bowl,between centers to make the concave I can control the grain Alignment or heights of rims on natural edge bowls and still use the glue block.
Al