Chatter and non-chatter cutting states, associated with the orthogonal
cutting of stiff metal cylinders, are identified through an analysis
of the ratios of the mean absolute deviations of details of the biorth
ogonal 6,8 wavelet decomposition of cutting force measurements. Sequen
ces of cutting experiments were performed in which either depth of cut
or turning frequency was varied. For light and medium cutting the mea
n absolute deviations of the ratios of details d(3) and d(4) is less t
han 7 while for chatter it is greater than 15. The kurtosis of detail
d(3) is shown to identify transitions to chatter.