Best woods for clean end-grain shaping
forestgirl
| Posted in General Discussion on
What woods would you say provide the absolutely best end-grain shaping (e.g., a Roman ogee shape, nothing complicated)??
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Another proud member of the “I Rocked With ToolDoc Club” …. :>)
Replies
for shaping, especially freehand, mahogany is one of the best and a favorite of Chippendale's for this reason.
Cherry or walnut, especially slow-grown English examples. The harder red softwoods (southerm yellow pine, douglas fir, probably redwood) can finish quite nicely if slow-grown. It often comes down to technique and tooling tho - like, sharp!
MalcolmNew Zealand | New Thinking
With really really sharp tooling, it's hard to beat White Oak for end grain - it takes an amazing polish. So does Black Walnut.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." A. Einstein
http://www.albionworks.net
DO NOT USE PURPLE HEART!
Gotcha, Will. No problem there. I should have specified "domestic" or at least "affordable."forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
FG,
I'm working with some yellowheart right now, and its end grain works well. It also machines well and has a nice luster to it. Yellowheart is also called brazilian satinwood or pau amerello; it is a nice golden yellow and isn't too expensive (I got mine for $4.5/bf). Very dense wood, I recommend that you don't drop it on your toes (it hurts!).
Hi Paul, hmmmmm, I've seen yellowheart in pictures of finished work -- pretty! How is it on blades (planer, jointer)??forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Yellowheart planes beautifully, but I did just have to go out and resharpen my planar blades. It could be coincidence... When hand planing, I don't seem to have to retouch the blade any more often than other woods. YH hardness is less than other tropicals, like the bubinga that is being used with the YH in the coffee table I'm making. (Maybe I should post my Design CAD plan for it in the DCAD thread, like I said I would a few weeks ago!).
Can't say how it treats jointer knives, as I lack a jointer (all hand jointing so far). When I sell a couple pieces, I'm planning on getting the griz 8" 4-blade jointer. If I sell a lot of work, I might step up to the version with the spiral cutterhead.
at least "affordable."..
I got a slab of Purpleheart about 2 inches thick, 12 inches wide, and about 6 foot long for next to nothing.. He said it had a crack in it and never sold??? I think I got it for about $80.00..
Working on the bench I'll make out of it.
I'll send PIC if I can find them on this puter!
Really, any of the domestics will work. The trick is to have a sharp cutter and watch you feed rate. For the cost, I'd stick to "local grown" alder. It's a beautiful wood and can a variety fod stains to mimic other hardwoods.
I have to say that the best end-grain shaping wood that is readily available and won't force you to spend a TON of $$ would have to be White Oak. The end-grain is truely amazing to work with and it is available at just about EVERY lumber store. The cost is reasonable and the wood is strong as hell.
Cheers!
Dark Magneto
Hi forestgirl ,
I really like Maple for it's machining properties , yeah it can burn a bit but , very little tear out occurs IMO . Small cuts and sharp cutters will produce superior results with most any species . Maple takes a finish that will amaze you while making you look like a genius .
dusty
is Tom's place anywhere near the Ballard Locks ?
Hi Dusty, I was thinking about trying maple tomorrow. I'm hoping to minimize the differential between stain absorbancy end grain: long grain. Alder shows a big different between the two.
Tom's place is about 2.5 or 3 miles east (and a tad south) of the locks. It's all Seattle to me, as I hardly ever go over there anymore. Just stay safely tucked onto my little island with its little traffic jams and paucity of car hassles, LOL. If I have to sit through more than one light cycle, it's a notable event. (We have "scheduled traffic jams" when the ferry docks, so I just stay off the highway 'til it clears out some.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I found some PIS's but I had more?
Not finished.. Not even close to finished... The stain on the end is ArmorAll and just a test.. Thinks it needs ALOT more! Wood sure soaks up stuff!
Hi Will, thanks for the pics. It is pretty stuff, isn't it!?
Congrats on getting the pictures downloaded to your 'puter and then attached here at Knots. A suggestion from a woebegone dial-up sufferer (no DSL or cable here) -- take a look at your software and figure out how to crop and then re-size and compress your pics. You can get them down below 50 kb, which makes it easier for us primitive to look at them.
If you have any questions, drop me a line.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Hi FG,
Ive shpaed end grain on every common species out there with no problems. I'd say Red oak is the worst, but even it is not bad. remember to shape end grain first then the long edges so that tear out is minimised. Also climb cutting and sharp tooling eliminates tear out completely. I dont think you need me to tell you climb cutting is inharently dangerous and should not be done free hand.
Mikeplease excuse my spelling.
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