I appreciated all your responses to my can opener on another thread about finish scraping, particularly since you all are experienced turners who think and don't just appeal to authority for information.
Your thoughts suggest that some further discussion about scraping the spinning wood might help to clarify why and what it is. Could it be that everybody knows what scraping is and can do it, but when push comes to shove can't agree on a definition for woodturners? Here's some questions you raised in my mind. Please add some of yours as well as your answers.
*********************************************** What is scraping? What determines when you should use it. What is cutting? Why is it different? Do we need new terms? Do you think of scraping as a distinct woodturning entity requiring separate tools and approaches or as a continuum of turning operations with variations: cutting -> shear cutting -> shear scraping -> scraping -> burnishing? What about negative rake scrapers and scraping? Is this more than just dealing with unequal double bevels? What about lagging the edge way below center, Japanese style? Can you enter a cutting edge below a surface and keep it cutting while the bevel is rubbing? When do thin wood shavings become wisps then granules then powder particles? Foolish questions? Perhaps.
Gone are the days when turners denied or felt a need to apologize for scraping, but does it seem to remain somehow a lesser method? Is scraping unimportant or a turning operation that we know all there is to know about, or all we need to know? If so, end of discussion!
Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter