In ornamental turning, it is vital that the cutters be sharpened to a mirror finish.
Jon Magill wrote a really great article for the Spring 2008 edition (Vol 23, #1) of AAW's "American Woodturner". In the article titled, Build an Overhead Drive (pages 30-31), he wrote:
QuoteCutters must be sharp! You will never achieve a reflective cut off the tool, which is always the goal in OT, if your cutter isn't sharp. I once read that you can never get a better finish off of your tool than the finish on the tool itself. In other words, unless your cutter has a mirror finish, you cannot expect to produce a mirror finish on your work.
The attached picture shows the results of sharpening my cutters with the SJ-250. By the way, there is no sanding here - this is straight off the rose engine lathe.
Kind regards,
Rich
Very good post, .rich.
Ken