I only have a limited number of tools for the lathe so far. Today I've decided I could use a round nose scraper. So far I've bought just Crown simply because the price and quality seams good. I have a Crown 1" bowl scraper that's curved but a diameter of about 1 1/2" or so. It's a little large to get into the corner of a bowl so I was thinking a 3/4" round nose would be useful. I'm on the edge about getting a negative edge scraper but think I want to wait until I have more experience with sharpening. One of the reasons I went with Crown is simply because I wanted to learn on good quality but not too expensive.

I did look at Thompson but I don't have any ash (we are about to loose them due to the Emerald Ash borer so I've been letting them grow as big as possible before harvesting them) to make a handle out of. I might have some yellow birch but I haven't looked into if it would make a good wood for a handle. I can't see buying something that I can make. I wasn't able to tell from their website, do you have to specify what shape you want? They just list widths and the picture shows them without an edge but they say they come sharp.

D-Way only sells negative rake scrapers. I think I would have no issues sharpening it but I would like to spend more time learning how to turn than wondering if it's my skill on the lathe or if I didn't get a good burr on the tool. Down the road seams like a better time to learn.

Sorbey seams to be more expensive than the Crown but I don't know if it's any better. Crown makes a regular high speed steel, a cryo version for the same amount ($34 from Hartsville is almost throw away tool money) or powder metal for almost twice the price. I see Thompson only sells tools that are made with powder metal. I did a search in the turner's forum but the only thing I came up with was on gouges. What do people think, is it worth getting power metal for a scraper?