The hand held style shown there is more traditionally associated with metal spinning of thin sheet sections rather than the turning of solid bar. That might be why you couldn’t trawl much up Doug. Certainly don’t see it often, it uses the same type of flat saddle tool rest, drilled for steel dowels. The dowels are then positioned accordingly and used as pivot points during forming, although they’re not used much in the video when using the ‘v’ point tools for straight cutting.
It’s certainly not common generally to turn solid heavy bar using free-hand tools, Doug you might find more if you search ‘metal spinning’ or ‘ornamental turning’ etc. I have to admit I’m chicken when it comes to ‘v’ tools and grooving tools as I’ve always set them securely in the tool post! I enjoy hand forming finials and acorns etc by file while the lathe is running, but wouldn’t chance hand held pointed tools a foot or so long!
Some beautifully ornate door hardware going on there…amazing stuff
