Replies

1. 
   roc | Jun 10, 2011 12:09am | #1

   Well you know me

   My personal motto is " To resort to sandpaper is to admit defeat".  But lets forget all that for the moment and I will ask you a question :

   What kind of wood is this you are showing us ?

1. 
   jointerman | Jun 10, 2011 01:17am | #2

   It's Claro Walnut with a live edge. Lot's off knots and tear-out. And personally, I love sanding post planing and scraping! As I did with this piece of maple! Boo-yah

   
2. 
   roc | Jun 10, 2011 03:45am | #3

   Really

   Walnut ?

   Nah.

   This is walnut ( see photos ) (no sand paper or scrapers ) (just a sharp plane blade )

   The stuff in your photo looks all anemic like it is mostly sap wood.

   From what I see I would try a a bevel down plane or your bevel up with a shallow sharpening angle blade that is very sharp.  A low angle  bevel up  is probably NOT the best choice to start with  ( I see the low angle plane in your other photo ).  Looks almost like the plane blade has crushed the grain.

   If I am wrong and the blade edge gets dinged up then go steeper sharpening angle by adding a back bevel on the top side of the blade .  Still dings ? keep going steeper until no tear out.  Still tear out then use the low angle plane with steep sharpening angle.  Still tear out then wet it.

   PS: and I just remembered.  About the bench. Doesn't the legs on that bench flex and slide across the floor causing problems planing ?  I would at least jam it in the corner of your shop so you have a solid predictable resistance to work against. That could be part of the problem to.

   
1. 
   jointerman | Jun 10, 2011 04:34pm | #7

   I think what you got there is some sort of black walnut. Claro is on the lighter side, I usually call it California Walnut. But you are right, it is quite sappy, but unfortunately, it was the best piece I could get.

   As for that other picture of my jointer plane, it's a bevel up with a 12 degree bed and a 38 degree blade for an effective 50 degrees, it's pretty good at cutting through figured woods... Followed with a No. 4 smoother and then SAND PAPER!!!!!! ;)

   The Festool table is pushed up against a corner when I'm planing, and it's just okay, it still rocks some. My workbench has a bunch of crap on top of it, and also, it's not that much better than the Festool table.

   Lastly... The tear out came from the lumber yard. The cut the slab with a bandsaw and must have quickly run it through their planer. Kind of lame, but it's so hard to find Claro.

3. 
   joinerswork | Jun 10, 2011 08:14am | #4

   jointer,

   Did you send this piece thru the planer both ways, and is this the best surface you could get?  In other words, did you have worse tearout somewhere else on the board when you sent the opposite end thru first? A final light pass, 1/32" or so sometimes lessens tearout like this.

   Smoothing planes were invented to work on reversing grain like this.  As roc suggests, a higher attack angle for your plane's blade, 50 or 55 degrees will help. A back bevel on a common pitched plane will do the job, and try sliding the plane sideways as you push it forward,  or hold it askew as you push it, to achieve a "slicing" action. You want a very sharp blade, and a very light depth of cut.  Also working across the grain (edge to edge rather than end to end) can help, especially in the spots where the grain is changing from "up" to "down".  Be mindful of where and how the grain direction changes, and use that awareness to start, stop and direct the direction you are planing- smoothing planes are short so that you can reverse their direction easily. A plane forces you to spread the work out over a large area, as it will soon cease to cut when it has achieve its depth of cut unless you remove wood all around the tearout.  If scraping, it is all too easy to work in the localised area and end up with a nice, smooth hollow or divot where the tearout used to be.  This may not be apparent til the finish hits the wood, and a low raking light shows a pond in the middle of your nice smooth top. 

   Or you can give it two or three passes it thru a thickness sander. 

   Ray

1. 
   jointerman | Jun 10, 2011 04:39pm | #8

   joinerswork,

   I didn't send it through the planer at all. The lumber yard must have sent it through their planer post bandsaw. It's kind of annoying that they did that. Any way, I attacked it with 60-grit and a Rotex this morning. Controlling that thing in Rotex mode is almost as much work as a plane! But the tear out is pretty much gone now.

   I'll probably check the flattening out with my Jointer plane, it's got a 50 degree cutting angle.

4. 
   wdwerker | Jun 10, 2011 11:38am | #5

   Yep , sand it out.

   I recently built a project with similar wood. We sanded it out with a drum sander, careful passes using finer grits as the tearout is almost gone.  Highly figured grain and knots turn out beautiful! We sanded out the entire top with an orbital sander using every grit in succession to take out any straight sander lines. Measure the depth  of the tearout, we only lost about 1/8 of thickness.

1. 
   jointerman | Jun 10, 2011 04:22pm | #6

   wdwerker,

   I hit it with the Festool Rotex with 60-grit this morning and got that tear-out out. Will work on checking flatness and smoothness next. I wish I had room for a drum sander, those look really fun and dusty!