Working highly figured wood

[danmart77]

If you don't have a spiral head planer, you might consider working figured wood with a toothing plane iron. I don't plane tons of curly maple and birdseye maple so I haven't pulled the trigger on a helical cutter head. They are nice but its not in the budget now and I still prefer the hand tool for delicate work as opposed to feeding into the planer with my fingers crossed.

My solution over the years has been to use a toothing plane. For the past year of so I upgraded to a high angle plane and a toothing blade for my LN 62 for delicate work with highly figured woods. I also use it to smooth veneers I cut on the bandsaw. If you look at some of the photos below you might appreciate the unique advantages of using these tools. They work great.

toothing blade

Oak crotch feather level with tooth iron after cutting on the bandsaw

walnut leveled with the tooth plane

Ln 62 used with high angle blade and toothing blade. Just set it in the plane adjust and go

high angle(50 degrees) for planning curly

curly maple box finished with toothing plane and high angle blade. No sanding required.
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The toothing iron is a unique tool for you plane. I have the longer LN jack which is my most used plane in the shop but.. I wish I had the bevel up smoother with the toothing iron. I think it would be even better to surface veneer and figured stuff. Unlike a power planer you can approach the wood a bit slower and avoid tear out on a special piece of wood.

Hope this makes sense

Dan
Durham

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[BKind2Anmls]

Thanks, Dan. I wish you were closer so I could see you in action. Any planing I do now has got to be by hand.

 

[Hmerkle]

Dan,
Thank you - I have a really nice piece of curly maple and keep avoiding using it becasue I am certain it is going to chip out!

So the process is;
toothing plane (should it be cross grain, along the grain or at 45 degrees in two passes, or ???)

Then a high angle plane 50 + degrees? (again, should it be cross grain, along the grain or ???)

I have heard to "Wet" the wood alcohol or light water? (wives tale or ???)

 

[CrealBilly]

Dan,
Thank you - I have a really nice piece of curly maple and keep avoiding using it becasue I am certain it is going to chip out!

So the process is;
toothing plane (should it be cross grain, along the grain or at 45 degrees in two passes, or ???)

Then a high angle plane 50 + degrees? (again, should it be cross grain, along the grain or ???)

I have heard to "Wet" the wood alcohol or light water? (wives tale or ???)

You should have said your scared to use it

 

[Hmerkle]

You should have said your scared to use it

You have this misconception - there is no fear I am just not ruining a good piece of wood without being education on how best to approach it!

 

[JimD]

Thanks for the tips. I also rarely use figured wood. I have had decent success using my planner by making sure the straight knives were good and sharp and taking small bites. The limited chipout I get doing this can be sanded away with an orbital sander. But avoiding it entirely would be nice. Or maybe I could get it close, to within 1/16, and then hand plane to final dimensions. I don't mind hand planning but I do it so seldom my technique is not very good and I tend to not get things a constant thickness if I remove very much wood. I guess I need to practice more.

Your picture of the oak is also a good example of why it makes sense to saw up crotches, even on species not known for having highly figured grain. They are more trouble, but worth it.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Dan, thanks for the review. That is some beautiful wood you are using, and those boxes are gorgeous.

 

[danmart77]

Response to Hanks questions


So the process is;

toothing plane (should it be cross grain, along the grain or at 45 degrees in two passes, or ???) Yes that is what I do until the surface is flat. I like to scribble pencil lines on the surface to see how I am progressing. Just a technique.

Then a high angle plane 50 + degrees? (again, should it be cross grain, along the grain or ???) I run with the grain but hold the plane at a skewed attack angle. If its really wild I gently angle and check

I have heard to "Wet" the wood alcohol or light water? (wives tale or ???) No this is not a myth. It does help to spray a little water if you are having trouble. Alcohol dries to quickly for me so I use water.

Additionally, in many cases I use a good card scraper after toothing. When I get lucky, I don't have to use the high angle plane at all. In my case, I only have a jack plane(14" long). This does not work as well as a shorter smoothing plane. It levels very well but it doesn't smooth the irregularities as well as the shorter plane.

Remember: you don't need to get the surface dead flat you need to get it smooth. Many times I see hardwood that has been sanded with orbital sanders and the surface is covered with swirl marks. If you like to sand, do not do it till you are done with your edge tools. The impregnated sand particles will dull you keen edge on plane irons and scraper burr.

The desk lid below is anything but flat when viewed from an angle and light. It doesn't matter when you look straight on.

Regards
Dan​

 

[CrealBilly]

You have this misconception - there is no fear I am just not ruining a good piece of wood without being education on how best to approach it!

Smile

 

[pviser]

I admire anyone who can hand plane curly maple with a high level of success. Even with a helical planer, the results will not likely be perfect. A foolproof technique is a drum sander. By carefully gluing parallel rails to the edges, the drum sander can get you through jointing, planing, and rough sanding. Of course, this is slow going, but the reward is that there is zero tearout. After hand sanding and finishing, the surface will be like glass.

I readily acknowledge that a full size drum sander is no small expense. For me, it cost me more than any other purchase ever, including jointer, cabinet saw, and band saw. However, it has been a joy to use figured wood with near-perfect results. I am careful with my money, but I have never regretted this purchase.

 

[Jeff]

Dan,

I've never used highly figured wood but your post shows how to approach it. The dynamics of a toothed blade on figured wood now makes sense.

I found these tidbits which expand on your approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl8Tj1lUha4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKmLRYmI8e8

 

[CrealBilly]

I used water on this curly hard maple and ran it through with straight blades in my jointer and planer to rough out all the parts for glueing - I did not have any chipout by doing so. I also did a lot of routing on it. It also under went a lot of sanding after it was completely assembled.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=55042

 

[Tarhead]

I readily acknowledge that a full size drum sander is no small expense. For me, it cost me more than any other purchase ever, including jointer, cabinet saw, and band saw. However, it has been a joy to use figured wood with near-perfect results. I am careful with my money, but I have never regretted this purchase.

If you don't need to use a drum sander frequently (or are budget-challenged) there are lots of DIY drum sander options for low or no cost using plywood offcuts and a re-purposed motor(s) or adapting a lathe or table saw. Here are just a few in the tip of the iceberg: http://www.homemadetools.net/site/search?q=Drum+Sanders , http://woodgears.ca/sander/thickness.html , http://plansnow.com/dn3078.html

 

[Bob Carreiro]

Nice work and masterful use of handtools!

 

[Gofor]

I have the low angle Jack plane from Lee Valley, (their version of the LN 62) and have found the toothed / high angle iron approach to also work well around knots in walnut and oak (not necessarily a complete highly figured board), so the technique works well for those tough areas on large pieces like a table top, also. IMHO, the toothed blade, although not used frequently, is well worth the investment for those who use hand planes.

As for the direction of use question, I would say it depends. Around a knot, I usually end up attacking it from all different directions with the toothed plane to level it, and run with the surrounding grain with the high-bevel blade set fine.

Great tip, Dan

Go

 

[chris_goris]

Im no expert at this but I was always taught to use a cabinet scraper for this?

 

[danmart77]

Im no expert at this but I was always taught to use a cabinet scraper for this?

Not sure what "this" is referring to but I'm guessing working difficult wood and maybe the post about smoothing knot areas??

The scraper is a good tool and one I use every day that I'm in the shop. I keep a card scraper in my back pocket most all the time.

For big areas I start with the toothing plane or toothing scraper/plane(Stanley 112). Many others use the Stanley 81 for the same work. I can get more power in the stroke using a tool I can push. This technique or preference here. I use the LN 62 with a toothing blade and the Stanley 112 with a toothing iron and I can move along quickly.

Once I have a level surface or most of the rough spots smoothed out with the toothing tools, I go to the LN 62 with a high angle iron(50-55 degree angle or steeper). This steep angle will not tear out the most troublesome curly maple and other difficult woods like crotch figured walnut.

The desk lid below was done with this technique/method.

Hope this helps
Dan

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[chris_goris]

"This" refers to smoothing highly figured woods with one of these:
https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/scraping-planes/large-scraping-plane?node=4075

 

[danmart77]

Reply to Chris goris entries.


I’m no expert at this but I was always taught to use acabinet scraper for this?(chris)

Chris this is a good way to go. It is fundamental scraping demonstrated with a straight edge scraper blade. It is effective but I use this in a later stage. I like it for small areas for minor clean up.

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I do not like this tool. It is non adjustable and that just limits its value to me. I have wooden scraper planes that do the same thing so its not a tool on my wish list. I would discourage a first time buyer from purchasing this tool and opt for the 112. Much better tool.

Note. For any other users of the original Stanley 112, the LN irons DO NOT FIT the slot. Ron Hocks irons are made a bit thinner and they work very well and they are less expensive when you price match LN and Hock.​

"This" refers to smoothing highly figured woodswith one of theseChris)
https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/...lane?node=4075

It does refer to smoothing but do you find any LN demos on video with this tool? I can't find one. Wonder why the guy(Dynish) is using a LN 62 for his demo?



If you take a look at the 2 youtube videos below, you will see LN and Highland hardware demonstrating the LN 62 as the workhorse for preparing figured wood. That doesn't rule out the scraper you mention. It comes later.

Some thoughts on the path I use and a couple photos to aid in this description.

the work begins with a toothing iron in the LN 62 not the scraper. This tool gives me a whole bunch more power.

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If I can not get all the low spots with the long LN 62, I pull the Stanley 112 out with a tooth iron. Here's where I would like to have the LN short smoother with a tooth iron. Budget limit for now.

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Leveling and smoothing a larger board with the Stan 112 will give you lots of valleys. The LN 62 is longer and gives you a much better surface and a whole lot faster.

Take a look at the lower sites and the videos will give you a little more insight ..... I think?


Dan






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl8Tj1lUha4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKmLRYmI8e8

 

[chris_goris]

"This" refers to smoothing highly figured woods with one of these:
https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/scraping-planes/large-scraping-plane?node=4075

You can also get a toothed blade (18 and 25 TPI) for this.... Ive done large rough areas with this and gone right to completely smooth. It can be a bit agressive with a nice sharp burr however, some woods dont even require one!.