As has been said, depends on what you're doing. The way I work, it seems
to be below center all the time. Dry firing is a good way to determine
where. Lathe off, tool of choice, and check how you'll make contact with
the work , roll the edge to begin, and continue in direction of cut. If
any of those involve big vertical changes in the gouge handle, it's time to
move the rest. It's critical that your tool be firmly supported on the
rest as the edge enters the wood.

I like to contact a convex piece at its point of maximum diameter. That way
an incipient catch goes into thin air. Concave pieces are contacted above
the point of maximum diameter for the same reason.

Scraping's different. There you want the point of contact pretty much dead
on centerline.

In all cases, keep the rest as close to the cut - I emphasize the cut - as
possible. It's worth it most times to stop and move the rest rather than
force a big angular change. Your dry fire will let you know how far you can
lean, initially. After a while you'll know it instinctively.

"moggy" wrote in message
...
Newbie question.
How do you judge what the height should be? Are their any rules for this?