EcrosTechWiki | Woodworking / Push Cuts with a Bowl Gouge

To make a bowl you need to use a bowl gouge and to use a bowl gouge you need to learn the push cut (occasionally known as the tip cut).

Detroit Area Wood Turners - Mastering the Pull Cut

This article (PDF) is about the pull cut, but describes the push cut to establish context. It makes some very good points, such as the impossibility of using a push cut adjacent to the "spigot" (tenon or foot).

Wood Magazine - Three Basic Bowl Cuts

This brief Web page begins with a description of the "bevel-rubbing cut" (apparently a push cut) including a cut-away photograph showing the progress of the cut inside a bowl. Extravagant claims such as "The support provided by the bevel prevents tear-out" should be ignored.

Turn A Wood Bowl - Four Turning Cuts to Master

This Web page is exceptional in that it attempts to establish terminology (flute positions) and full context before diving into the details of the cuts. The push cut is described first. Special mention is made of the difficulty of starting the a push cut "in fresh wood" (which, presumably, means from outside the wood).

The section on the pull cut reads as if it is just search engine optimization text and I can't find any use in it. Maybe this is because the presenter (Kent) elsewhere says that he hardly ever uses this cut.

Turn A Wood Bowl - 4 Bowl Gouge Techniques (Video)

The Push Cut ...

The Pull Cut is described as "...just like a push cut, but ... going backwards." Kent says that this is a bevel-supported cut and that you need to avoid catches on the wing, but otherwise doesn't explain. He says that he uses this cut only two percent of the time (push cuts are ninety percent) and "... you just need to get into a little tight spot ...". However, there is a really good shot of a pull cut in action, starting at the foot and sweeping around the curve of the bowl towards the rim.

The Scrape ...

The Shear Scrape ...

Doc Green’s Woodturning Site - Gouges, Part 3, The Basic Cut

Doc Green refers to a push cut as a "tip cut", but this is a very detailed explanation of how it works.

Doc Green’s Woodturning Site - Gouges, Part 4, Cutting on the Wing

"Conventional wisdom holds that ... the fingernail [is] very tricky to control in a wing cut — rotate the edge just a bit far into the cut, until it comes off the bevel, and you will get a catch."

Black Label woodworks - How to turn your first bowl (Video)

Chris says he uses only pull cuts to shape the outside curve of the bowl. Starting at 4:19, he first shows how to start the cut with bevel support on the bottom of the bowl and then works out to the corner and around. He has tailstock support and the tool rest is across the bottom, almost at right angles to the lathe axis. It seems to me that he is transitioning from a pull cut to a push cut as he rounds the corner. At 5:17, he turns the rest to be at about 45°, increases the lathe speed and continues with the pull/push transiton. Then at 5:45, the camera angle changes. The rest is now nearly parallel to the axis and he's using a pull cut all the way. I think his trick of changing from pull to push as he goes around the corner relies on a short bevel, which can be seen at 5:06. I don't think it would be a good idea for me to try this with my longer (50°) bevel.