Cross-grain Planing successes

[Dave Crow]

When I read a thread like this one, I read it out loud with my ole English accent. I must say it gives me joy to imagine some of the posters as pompous British docents describing an incredibly obscure antique. With apologies to Derek(who I admire greatly) and excluding Bandit(true woodnet gem).

Please also note this post is "tongue in cheek".
bud lite voice on "I love you guys"


Dave

[adamcherubini]

Please let’s not troll this off the rails by insulting people. I’ve seen this a million times before and it never ends well. Keep your (plural) clever quips to the off topic section. This is not a chat room.

PM if you need to comment about this. Otherwise, let’s get back to hand tool working.

[Dave Crow]

Please let’s not troll this off the rails by insulting people. I’ve seen this a million times before and it never ends well. Keep your (plural) clever quips to the off topic section. This is not a chat room.

PM if you need to comment about this. Otherwise, let’s get back to hand tool working.

Wow, first and most important, if I offended anyone by my post I humbly apologize.

This year has been extremely difficult for so many of us and I try to inject a bit of humor where I can.

Adam, Everything I know about you tells me that you are a Gentleman(a Gentleman is never a bully) I don’t do email. Sorry

As to the subject of this thread;
I have had a difficult time dealing with various hardwoods. I purchased a large Purple Heart board to use for cutting boards and to trim some boxes. That wood would tear out if I looked at it wrong. The planes I have all caused severe tear out. The best option turned out to be my #80, at roughly 60 degrees with the grain and it seemed work best when wet with MS.
The other wood that tear out was an issue was some white oak that I was given by a friend that he had left over from a commercial job. The oak had been finished on one side which caused cupping. The boards 12” wide but only ½” thick. I ripped each board to reduce the effect of the cupping but I had tear out issues so I reverted to the #80. All in it was a lot of work but hey, free wood, and the #80 to the rescue. Below is a picture of one of the tool boxes I made with the white oak.

   

   

[adamcherubini]

I’m not trying to take anything away from anybody. I guess I just remain slightly suspicious, not of Chris and not Chris Schwarz, but of the notion of cross planing as a standard stock prep operation, alternate, or even a curly grain panacea.

Sorry Dave Crow, don’t know anything about you. All I see is VERY straight grained oak that should been absolutely no problem. If you felt you needed an alternate method to handle gnarly grain, your pictures don’t show it. Going by the pictures alone, I think a reasonable response is to suggest better sharpening. Not a rebuke. I’ve had many experiences with classes and I found in almost every case, tools brought to class really weren’t sharp enough.

I think I would recommend reconsidering sharpening before resorting to cross grain planing. And when planing with the grain isn’t working, working off grain with a curved blade and a high skew angle would be next on my list.

[AHill]

As to the subject of this thread;
I have had a difficult time dealing with various hardwoods. I purchased a large Purple Heart board to use for cutting boards and to trim some boxes. That wood would tear out if I looked at it wrong. The planes I have all caused severe tear out. The best option turned out to be my #80, at roughly 60 degrees with the grain and it seemed work best when wet with MS.
The other wood that tear out was an issue was some white oak that I was given by a friend that he had left over from a commercial job. The oak had been finished on one side which caused cupping. The boards 12” wide but only ½” thick. I ripped each board to reduce the effect of the cupping but I had tear out issues so I reverted to the #80. All in it was a lot of work but hey, free wood, and the #80 to the rescue. Below is a picture of one of the tool boxes I made with the white oak.

Purpleheart is notorious for splintering and tearout.  It's a very hard wood with a lot of interlocking, open-pored grain.

I have to agree with Adam's suggestion of your blade not being sharp enough, but please answer these questions so we can help narrow down why you're getting so much tearout:

1.  What is your sharpening technique?  (What type of steel is in your plane blades?  What bevel angle do you sharpen to?  Single bevel?  Secondary bevel?  Do you grind before you hone?  Do you sharpen freehand or use a honing guide? What media do you use?  What grits?  Do you strop after you hone?  Does your blade have a cambered edge, or is it straight across?)

2.  Are you planing downhill?  In other words, if you are looking at the edge of your board, and the grain is oriented //////, then you should be planing in this direction:  ---->.  (This is a very basic question, so I apologize if it seems patronizing, but for the benefit of those novices who might read this thread in the future, it's important.)

3.  How thick of a shaving are you trying to take?  The thicker your shaving, the higher the probability of tearout.

4.  Does your plane have a chipbreaker?  If so, how far back from the edge is the chipbreaker set?  To reduce tearout, it should be VERY close to the edge.

5.  How wide is your mouth on the plane?  Tearout is more prone with a wide open mouth compared to a tight mouth.

6.  How flat is the sole of your plane?

7.  Is your blade equally projecting from the mouth (is the blade tilted so that the shaving is thicker on one side than the other)?

8.  Are you skewing the plane when you are using it or keeping the blade normal to the direction of travel?