Replies

1. 
   douglas2cats | Mar 23, 2006 01:15am | #1

   You didnt mention what type of planes you're using but have you tried something with a higher bed angle or a bevel-up plane with a higher angle grind? I had some similar problems a couple of months ago with some figured Mrytlewood and got a very noticable improvement switching to a blade with a steeper angle on my LV bevel-up jointer.

   If you build it he will come.

1. 
   dherzig | Mar 23, 2006 01:57am | #2

   I have been using a L-N low angle and also a Ray Iles English smoothing plane bedded at 50 with a honing at 40.  They work beautifully on sycamore or birds-eye maple. I have even used a L-N smoothing plane. In spite of my reluctance to do so, I am probably switching to sand paper for this. It goes aginst my religion, but sometimes one must be a heretic.

   Thanks for the response.

2. 
   philip | Mar 23, 2006 11:37am | #3

   Jatoba has one or two saving graces- one of which is the fact that it can be scraped with card scrapers very easily. If you are getting tearout that is beyond rectification by scraping don't blame the wood-rather re-examine your techniques.If you don't want to start playing around with different sharpening angles , back bevels etc etc then you can always resort to planing it across the grain, then scraping it.... yes I may be shot at dawn for the suggestion, but it will get the job done -all these timbers have different characteristics -you don't have to work to a rigid set of rules.
   It is a handsome timber-worth the extra effort that can be involved in working it.

   Philip Marcou
3. 
   Pondfish | Mar 23, 2006 01:17pm | #4

   I had no problems with mine, I just made sure my blades were very sharp and the passes were very shallow.  Be prepared to resharpen your blades much more often when planing Jatoba.

   Recommending the use of "Hide Signatures" option under "My Preferences" since 2005