I want a shearing cut for an acceptable finish.
a flat knife ground to profile scrapes. I've never had luck scraping profiles more than about 1/2" wide.
This is why I mentioned the bevel angle you wish to have ground onto your tool steel.
A standard lathe scraper held in the normal manner has a zero degree rake. The cutting face is 90 degrees to the work as it passes the cutting edge.
The "tangential" cutter you propose to use is subject to the same "rake" angle forces. A "negative rake" pushes the chip back into the workpiece. When cutting with wood, "negative rake" is never good. Even "zero degree rake" is not the best, as you state, "scraping" can produce chatter and tear out.
"Positive rake" lifts the chip away from the work piece (think of a hand plane curling the chip upward) Even more so when the plane is canted producing a shearing action along with this positive rake.
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On a rotating workpiece, with the tool entering along a horizontal path, the "zero degree" point in reference to the cutting face changes as the diameter changes. A tool height producing a .875 finished diameter needs a much more acute bevel to cleanly cut at the 2.00 inch diameter than it does at a 1.125 inch diameter.
It the tool has a 45 degree bevel, it will cut like crap and require greater force to cut (might not cut at all) on a 2 inch rough diameter.
Given the same 45 degree tool bevel and a rough diameter of 1.125 inches, the tool should cut smooth and clean all the way down to the finish diameter of .875 inch.
The take away; Grind the tool with a 45 degree bevel , rough cut (precut) your stock to within .250 diameter of finish dimensions.