Was it still green? The 40/40 on green wood is like corn thru the new maid-- pretty much the same as an Ellsworth on a dry blank in my opinion, though I do use it quite a bit.
And part of that is Batty too. I believe he was conceived on a lathe, as was his dad. He can make it look easy.
Tom, after a few decades of turning I would take more than someone cutting green wood to impress me, LOL But, you have a very valid question. I asked that same thing myself to David Ellsworth. In his DVD he makes shavings fly, perfect finish right off the tool. David helped me a lot, a owe him a lot. I asked him because I truly did not know if the wood he was using was dry or green. I was trying to cut dry Koa, and I was getting a lot of tearing. He told me, well, with dry wood, do the same as the video, but, slower...
To answer you, the piece of Cook Pine, super punky, was super dry. I had set it aside in hopes of I do not know what. In Oahu, Stuart did the same. David Chung had a piece of dry, old, spalted, rotten mango wood. David told me that within 5 seconds he knew his woodturning life had changed. We had discussed Stu coming over and changing our technique, we both said we were happy with what we were doing. David said you have to learn whatever the heck he did! I have found that when someone tells me the 40/40 is the same as other techniques when it comes to finishing, 100% of the time they are not doing the technique right, they do not have the grind right, in short, they are not doing the 40/40, they are trying to do it but are not there yet. In my recent Argentina trio, someone made a comment that I can turn because of my Thomspon tools and my good Stubby lathes. I said, OK, let's have a little competition. With the same homemade bowl gouge, we each had 10 minutes to work a blank, the same size. My results were 200% better than his effort. I then told them, it is not the arrow, it is the Indian. I still have several bowl gouges with the Ellsworth grind. I will not give up using it, it is a great tool, cuts great, it is versatile. The 40/40 is just another weapon in someone's arsenal.