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This is the general purpose / roughing cutter. It's a 3/8" x 3/4" high speed steel bit, 4" long. It's ground to about the same shape as a knife tool for the lathe. Clearance and rake angles are about 8 degrees everywhere. Great tool, can take heavy cuts without chattering even on a lightweight shaper. Big...

This is a finishing bit, pretty much as described in Moltrecht V. II, p. 14. This is the cutter shown at C in the drawing on that page. If you look it up, note that the end-on drawing in the figure is wrong: it shows the angle going backwards. In this photograph, the side of the cutter that's on top is actually the front. The edge is curved, and gets pushed through the work at an angle. The angle that's ground in is about 25 degrees, as specified by Moltrecht. Big...

Another view of the finishing cutter. Big...

The large tool mounted on the shaper, ready to take a cut. The slight angle at which it's mounted allows a somewhat deeper cut, just as it would on the lathe. Big...

These are chips made by the large tool. Depth of cut was small, about .025". The chips come off hard, sharp, hot and brittle. The work is O-1 tool steel. Big...

The finishing cutter ready to go. This shot gives a better view of the curved edge and the angle at which it meets the work. The cutter is mounted vertically, with little or no angle. We are standing in front of the shaper, a little to the left, looking at the left hand side of the bit, which will feed from right to left. Big...

This is the same setup, but now we've moved to the right. You can see the curved edge and the angle at which it shears through the work. (This photo makes it look as if I don't have enough front clearance on the blade. Turns out that that was the case. After a regrind, things went much better. It's a little hard to judge the angles when the cutting face is 25 degrees away from usual.) Big...

Same setup again, looking directly from the front. Notice that only a small part of the edge actually touches the work. This cutter is for light work: Moltrecht recommends .001" to .003" depth of cut. Big...

Chips from the finishing cutter, about .004" depth of cut and .004" feed per stroke. Big...

More chips from the finishing bit, this time with about .002" depth of cut and .002" feed per stroke. These things are fine: a pile of them looks like Brillo. (Careful: sharp.) Big...

Chips, same depth of cut, .006" feed per stroke. Big...

This is a chip coming off the work. I think that this picture gives the best idea of how the finishing bit cuts. It's not at all hard to take .001" off the work with this bit. Big...