I am working with Birds Eye Maple for the first time. When I ran it over the jointer the first time most of the eyes popped out. It seems thar running it very slowly over the jointer lessens this to a degree. Running it through the planer popped the eyes out and the machine only has one speed. I tried a smoothing plane but that did not seem to be the ticket. I next used a low angle block plane set real fine and that was some better. I am now in the sanding stage and it looks like I’ll be there for a good while.
Any help working with this wood will be appreciated.
Replies
Jerry, I've not worked birdseye yet, but can pass along a couple of tips I've seen offered for figured woods: one is to lightly moisten the surface of the wood before milling. The other is, in the case of the planer, to run it through at an angle.
I'm sure if these are wayyyy off base, someone will jump in and tell me so.
forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Jerry,
Welcome to wood-working hell. Maple, any maple, especially maple that has any interesting figure does not like to be worked with machines that have rotary cutter heads. Very light cuts, VERY sharp jointer and planer knives, very slowly, at a slight angle, lots of prayer and you may get away with it. Probably not.
Any plane that has any tendancey to chatter (maybe so little that you never notice it on other woods), will fail you with figured maple. The iron must be razor sharp (honed very finely then stropped or buffed with compound).
There's another thread on the forum about the joys of using a very well made plane (Lie-Nielson)in these situations. I have several hand-made wooden planes which slice this kind of wood without tearing it.
It takes experience and very special tools to do this wood justice. But, Oh, the reward!
Good luck with the sander.
VL
Jerry,
As a matter of routine I hone an approximately 5 degree back bevel on my planer knives, no matter what species I'm working with. This bevel should be quite small, in fact I can't see the ones I hone, with the naked eye. I use a diamond hone for this. This back bevel makes a scraping cut , and greatly minimizes tear out. As noted wetting the wood also helps.
For the same reasons, I hone a back bevel on my bench plane irons, after regrinding the primary bevel to 5 degrees less than normal. I've found this to be very effective at reducing tear out, but falls short of a dedicated plane with a higher pitch ( like the Lie-Nielsen York pitch).
The old fashion Stanley cabinet scraper ( and similar tools) leave a decent surface, and when properly used can remove a surprising amount of material, in a hurry.
When all else fails, the hand scraper will of course leave a near perfect surface, but it won't make a flat surface unless used with extreme care. The tendency when using a scraper is to work in one area leaving dips or a washboard effect.
Rob Millard
Dear Ron;
Please explain "backbevel." Is this done on the back side of the iron the part one usually laps to make flat?
Jerry,
That is correct. The bevel is honed on what is normally the flat side.
Rob Millard
Jerry
Birds-eye maple is beautiful but squirrelly when trying to prepare it as mentioned. If you use the jointer, skew it (angle it) as FG mentioned. This will reduce the angle of the cutters. This method is used on hand planes also. Make super thin passes as Venicia mentioned and make absoulutely sure the knifes are razor sharp.
Your post got my curiousity up, so I went down to the shop and and tested a piece of birds-eye. Just got a couple of new hand planes and the irons were honed last nite. Planed out the mill marks and flattened it with a #4 1/2 York pitch as Rob mentioned. Did some final smoothing with a Veritas scraping plane with a 1/8" iron and corners rounded. The Veritas is like the old "Stanley" 112 but wider, longer and bigger handles.
This was absolutely the best surface I ever put on birds-eye and it was done rather quickly. Just fuel for thought if you are going to use a lot of figured wood. Hand planes aren't cheap, but the results you get when you figure them out is worth the price of the "ticket". At least I'm sold. Results will vary with the user, I'm sure.
sarge..jt
Proud member of the : "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Sarge;
I honed up the Veritas. I had a polish on the blade that looked like chrome. I drew out the edge and set the hook at 15 deg. I put only enough turn on the thumb screw to keep it from falling out and went to it. I got fluffy shavings, skinned knuckles and all of the wood that came off was supposed to. I had some trouble with the edge toward me right at the very end and used a card scrape to take care of that.
It looks good and it is flat. With my woodworking skills this astounded me. I have make a lot of precision fire wood in my day.
Thanks, Jerry
Jerry
Sounds like you got the job done, and that is the bottom line always. At least you know what to expect next time you use a wild-wood and how to go after it. These hand planes open up some new (actually old, but we have set them aside with the power tool invasion) avenues of approach. In some cases they are not only the best approach, but the only one that will give decent results.
The skinned knuckles will heal long before that "birds-eye" maple loses it's appeal. Kind of manly anyway and lets your wife know you're not just taking naps in the shop. ha..ha...
Regards...
sarge..jtProud member of the : "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Sarge
Do you have the LN 4 1/2 with york pitch, this is one I do not have but have been thinking about.
Scott T.
Scott
No, I just recieved the Veritas # 4 1/2. I got an extra blade and put a 5 degree back-bevel on it so I would have both standard and York pitch set-ups. The standard blade gives you 45 degrees. I like the Veritas as the entire frog goes all the way to the sole. It can be moved forward with the plane to narrow the throat or back to open it.
The LN has two models, as you know. The standard and York with an optional York frog that can be retro-fitted to the standard. The LN is a super plane. Mike from Scotland has a thread on it now. He has said nothing but good.
I opted to go Veritas cause I just bought their scraping plane and it is nice. I am getting the LN low-angle jack soon. I also don't have a true jointer at this point and will probably go LN with that.
I have used my plane budget up at this point and wanted the # 4 1/2 before Xmas. After Xmas I will pick up the low-angle LN jack and a jointer. Now, if I didn't have teen-agers..... :>)
If I were you and you have the bucks, I wouldn't hesitate to go LN on that # 4 1/2 if thats what you're set on. Not that many get the Veritas (at least I don't see as many post) and I wanted to try their longer frog that goes all the way to the sole. I will give it a work-out and see how it performs. It's less money as you know. There are those that would like a decent quality plane, but can't always afford the LN. I am curious to see if the Veritas is that plane. In other words, someone has to "walk point". Risk.. yep. Rewards.. possibly. Let you know soon. ha..ha..
Regards...
sarge..jt
Proud member of the : "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Edited 11/30/2003 6:07:42 PM ET by SARGE
Jerry:
The last birdseye maple I used was for the top of a small table. I resawed the thickness from 8/4 rough stock and after glue up,ran the whole shebang thru the thickness sander. A perfect surface ready for finish sanding.
Work safely.¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬PAT¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Just completed a birdseye maple dresser;my first time using this type maple.I found (As already mentioned)moistening the boards and running them through the planer at an angle pretty much eliminated any tearout. (Was using a delta 22-580). john
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