Traditional heel versus parallel heel

[AllenClapp]

A traditional triangular heel is made with the graver rotated at the same angle that was used to shape the sides of the vee angle. As a result, when the graver is raised to the heel lift angle, only the point touches the hone and the heel is made only at the point of the graver and does not run up the entire side of the graver. A parallel heel is made with the graver rotated over farther so that the entire side of the graver contacts the hone and, thus, adds the heel all the way up the side. A parallel heel is useful if you want to use a vee graver for deep cuts, heavy beveling, bright cut, or flare cut work. Is there any kind of work where a traditional heel works better than a parallel heel? Do any of you use a traditional heel for some work and a parallel heel for other work? If so, which do you prefer for what kind of work?

 

[Roger Bleile]

Parallel heel does not leave a burr in the workpiece so I use it for any work with a square graver. Traditional heel for onglet.

 

[Chujybear]

I use a traditional heel over parallel heel for straight line cutting

 

[AllenClapp]

I use a traditional heel over parallel heel for straight line cutting

Is there something that the traditional heel does for you on straight lines that the parallel heel does not? Or is it just that traditional heel works well on straight lines and is quicker to resharpen? If that is what it is, I can see that because time = money. I was initially trained using the traditional heels, but I haven't found a reason to return to it since I started using parallel heels. It may be for what I do the heel type does not matter EXCEPT for wanting parallel heels for beveling/flare cut work and tight curves. I am trying to figure out if I am missing something by not using the traditional heel for some type of work.

 

[Chujybear]

I mostly use parallel heel, and will even happily use it on straight lines, but I feel that it shines at cuts that have character. That traditional heel can kind of lock into a straight line and make that sort of even line effortless.. like tilting your saw

 

[AllenClapp]

I mostly use parallel heel, and will even happily use it on straight lines, but I feel that it shines at cuts that have character. That traditional heel can kind of lock into a straight line and make that sort of even line effortless.. like tilting your saw

Thank you. That is an interesting comment about the traditional heel "locking in" to a straight line better than a parallel heel. It has been so long since I used a traditional heel that I need to go back and play with it. When I get some noggin time, I will work out the difference in angles at the tip to see if I can figure out why that might be. The tip geometry does change when you rotate the graver over more to create a parallel heel. I have seen results from jigs made to create parallel heels that were either a little less or a little more than parallel and have wondered if one was better than another for some reason. Both types rotate the graver past the vee shaping angle enough to run the heel completely up the side of the graver, but the heel on one gets a little shorter as it runs up the side and the heel on the other gets a little longer. So many interesting avenues to explore--so little time!