Mikey!!!

Excellent, Mikey, thank you. I thought about this when I was putting my wood lathe in operation, and then thought “...Nah...”. I’m going to try this.
 
... I’m going to try this.

If you do try them, make sure your tool rest is solid so you don't get chatter. I also highly recommend you make the tool rest vertically and horizontally adjustable so you can support your gravers in whatever manner required. Just to clarify, the angle of attack of the gravers matters. For brass and plastics, use zero inclination of the tool. You want the tool to be flat when it contacts the work, sort of like a brass lathe tool that has zero rake. For steels and harder materials, you want the graver pointing upward at about a 15 degree angle. You have to adjust the tool rest to allow the tool to contact somewhere near the spindle centerline; this is not critical but try to get close.

I find that the round gravers are every bit as important as the square ones. The round ones are used on any curved surface and are capable of very fine cuts.

Oh, and watch your knuckles! Getting whapped on the knuckles with the jaws of a spinning chuck is not fun. Use a collet chuck if you need to work up close to the chuck.

Keep us posted.
 
All good points. For my wood lathe, I made some long handle tools with carbide inserts, that work great, and have a lot of leverage. Also keeps my knuckles further from disaster. Seems like something similar, but maybe w/ HSS would work. Maybe I’ll try an insert too.

Fun!
 
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