Took some of the heel off my bowl gouge

[David Wrate]

Following the excellent advice from my post about tool marks on bowl interiors, I took a few minutes to remove some of the heel off my Ellsworth grind bowl gouge. Really made it easy to make the transition from the walls to the bottom. Didn't feel like I was pushing the heel into the wood to turn the corner and there were zero tool marks. Really easy to pick up the cut again too.
Definitely a change for the better! Thanks all

 

[Kirk Amidon]

Yes, the details like that make a bigger difference than you'd think.

 

[Aaron Harris]

Cool, David-I have also started doing this with my Ellsworth-ground gouges to good effect. I take it a step further after grinding by polishing the heel further on a fine 2x72" belt grinder. Probably overkill, but it can't hurt.

 

[Michael Luksich]

Just did the same thing......why does it take so long to change sometimes?

 

[hockenbery]

Shortening the bevel length allows the gouge to ride the bevel through a tighter radius.

Another significant benefit is reduced bevel drag which has two benefits
Less vibration - smoother cut.
Can work further over the tool rest

 

[David Wrate]

Shortening the bevel length allow the gouge to ride the bevel through a tighter radius.

Another significant benefit is reduced bevel drag which has two benefits
Less vibration - smoother cut.
Can work further over the tool rest

I definitely experienced these two benefits. Particularly being able to work further from the tool rest.

 

[robo hippy]

On a convex surface, it doesn't make any difference. On a concave surface, it makes a huge difference.

robo hippy

 

[Doug Freeman]

A short bevel improves “steering” on slightly convex to any concave surface with a push cut. The bottom of the bevel is the pivot. The shorter the bevel, the less the cutting edge moves for a given amount of handle movement, in effect giving more resolution to the “steering”, at least for moving the edge away from the wood. Makes no difference for deepening the cut.