How to plane/smooth squirrely wood

[sapwood]

I have several pieces of maple crotch resawn from firewood. Size is approximately 1" thick, 7 to 10 wide and 10 to 13 inches long. It is somewhat green. The grain direction is highly variable and contains a few small knots. My 13" planer doesn't seem to be able to handle it. Changing direction of feed helps, but I still get snipe, wood rotation, gouges, etc.

My first guess is that this is not the tool for the job I could sand, but I think that will negate the interesting grain. I've made a few attempts with my only handplane (smoother), but it doesn't appear to be the tool for the job either.

Soo, should a planer be capable of finishing this wood?

Does wood require handplaning (low angle block plane)?

And yes, I have a pix



Sapwood

[woodguy1975]

You have two options to deal with that wood. One you can try using your planer with very light passes with wetting the wood before planing. This usually help tearout.

The second option is to find a friend with a drum sander and sand them down toe dimension.

A well tuned handplane with a bed angle of around 55 or 60 degrees would probably worke too. That is what the LN high angle frogs are for. You can acheive the same affect by using a bevel up plane (low angle smoother) and grinding it on more of an upright bevel to get you the 55 to 60 degrees angle or you can make yourself a Krenov woodie.

I typically head to the drum sander.

Good Luck,

John

[sapwood]

Thanks John,

Certainly never though of wetting wood before planing

Also think I'll flip the blades and/or touch them up a little.

Sapwood

[Steve D]

Wetting works very well with figured wood to prevent tear out. It also wouldn't hurt to wipe down your blades after you are done to prevent any rusting. Not necessarily a big issue this time of the year with the humidity level down but why chance it?

[Phillip]

i've had good luck with scraper planes on tough grain. you could also try brian burns double bevel sharpening method. i've used double bevels on planer and jointer knives with great results on figured timber. still, if you have access to a widebelt sander, i agree with woodguy, a bit of sanding followed up with a no 80 scraper should set you right.

phillip

[ZMan]

If it were me, I would go the scraper route. It might wear out your arms and thumbs, but it would beat getting snipe from the planer and a dull grain from a wide-belt sander. The wetted wood through the planer just might work. Worth a try, but keep the edge on that scraper ready. Good luck.
Z

[D L Ames]

I read an article on working with bird's eye maple where it mentioned the technique of wetting the board before running it through the planer. Unfortunately, I didn't read find the article until after I had already ran my maple through the planer . Oh well..........live and learn. Thanks to those that chimed in to confirm this technique. Good tip on cleaning the blades afterwards to avoid rust issues.

D L

[sapwood]

mucho thanko folks!

Can't wait to try:
B: wetting wood before planing
C: sharpening and burnishing my card scraper just like DavidF taught me and putting it to use

But "A" comes first
A: Eating Turkey and all the trimmings, finishing off with pumpkin, sweet potato, pecan, chocolate and lemon pie (well at least three of the five pies)

Gobble gobble,
Sapwood

[ZMan]

Here's to Plan A!
Z

[Phil]

to help prevent snipe. try feeding a sacrificial board the same thickness before and after your maple. butt the ends of all three board together and feed them as one. if you have a head lock on your planer, use it .I've had good luck with this method
Phil

[D L Ames]

Roger, did you ever have any luck smoothing out this piece of stock?

D L

[DavidF]

This thread does highlight the misconception about the usefulness of the low angle block. These are great on end grain, but a HIGHER angle is required for face grain and more so with difficult figured grain. WG was absolutely right when he talks about the LN low angle only because the planing angle is controlled by the grind angle and not the frog - therefore it's user adjustable. The cutting angle of a normal block plane and a smoother is the same although they don't look it and some will gravitate towards the block thinking they are going low angle. The difference being bevel up v bevel down. The Low angle jack becomes really useful if you keep a couple of different blades around, ground at different angles.

[sapwood]

Originally Posted by D L Ames

Roger, did you ever have any luck smoothing out this piece of stock?

D L

And the answer is: pretty dang close!
I utilized almost every one's suggestions
Wetting the board prior to planing proved to be the most useful.
Touched up with card scraper (thanks DavidF, though I'm still not fully competent sharpening it)
The piece currently sits atop a recipe box I'm making for MIL and looks great. The box sides are eastern cedar and the reddish hue in the top adds a nice accent. However, as per usual, I managed to screw up first attempt at barrel hinge alignment . One hole is about 1/16 off, so I'll try cutting a plug and redrilling or just drill and "fill in" the slop around the 5mm hinge.

And yes, there will be pixs--I'm sooo close to finishing this one! All the wood came outta my firewood stack.

Thanks for asking,
Sapwood

[D L Ames]

Roger, I am glad to hear its working out for you. The description you gave sounds like a real nice box. I look forward to seeing the pix of the final box.

D L