Cherry tearing out when cleaning out pins and tails

[merrill77]

I was playing around in the shop today making a small dovetailed box with some leftover cherry. I cut the pins and tails on the bandsaw and was cleaning up the bottoms with mallet and chisel - thus I'm cutting across the end grain. I'd been doing exactly the same thing yesterday with some red oak and things were going very nicely, using any of my three smaller chisels. But on the cherry today, the wood was compacting and tearing out, instead of shearing. The chisels seem to be plenty sharp - they cut oak just fine. But made a mess of the cherry. Anyone else encounter this? Is it common with cherry?

TIA!
Chris

 

[Bill Clemmons]

You said the chisels "seem to be" sharp enough. Did you resharpen them after the Oak? If not, you might want to touch them up just a bit and then try them on the Cherry. Just a thought.

Bill

 

[JimD]

If anything, I would expect this more of oak. I also suspect the sharpness of the chisels or perhaps you were trying to cut off a little too much?

Jim

 

[froglips]

The sweet irony of bevel angles.....

The harder the wood, the steeper the chopping bevel you can use (and the longer life of your edge). The steeper the bevel, the more it'll crush softer woods.

Lower bevel angles make paring better and work much better in softer woods.

Its one of many classic trade offs.

As the others stated, first I'd suggest touching up your chisels. Could be they are blunted from their time in oak.

If not, you might consider a lower bevel angle. But, to lower it, you'll need to regrind/microbevel it depending on how you sharpen.

Also, look at how you are hitting the chisels. Its possible you are taking too big a bite or hitting it too hard. Sometimes its a combination of those factors.

Jim

 

[Gofor]

Yes, I have experienced somewhat the same thing. I have never had the privilege of working with cherry (yet). I have worked with oak (both white and red, and there is a difference), walnut, and pine and other "softer" woods of unknown origin. My personal opinion is that the softer woods are harder to dovetail than the oak, for the reasons you mentioned. I can be much more aggressive with oak than with the softer woods.

The rule of thumb I use is that the softer the wood the sharper the chisel and the lighter the cut. Also, back-bevels will compound the problem on soft wood. Kinda works like a screwdriver tip.

I usually make one fairly light (depending on the wood) strike on the bottom scribe line, flat face away from the waste side, to break the surface fibers. The then move in a bit to chop out the majority of the waste. I then go back a pare down to the line by hand (no mallet) using a cross cut shearing motion. With oak, the "move in a bit" is like 1/32". With pine, it is a good 1/16". This is difficult as you get to the center of the thickness, but that area is more hidden. I work from both sides to the middle, so any crushed voids are in the center. A chisel with a skewed edge (takes 2, one left and one right) makes this easier in thicker material, but some crushing on straight cuts will be hidden in the center. I have two Crown chisels that are beveled to about 25 degrees. They will not take a mallet blow at that bevel without chipping out, but work fine for hand paring.

I guess the summary of what I do is that I get to the final finished edge by hand, no mallet, except in harder woods like oak. If it won't cut, I hone the chisel.

I am by far no expert, but this is what works for me. (Of course, I probably take twice as long to do the same task, but why rush a good thing!:wsmile.

Go

 

[Gregory Paolini]

I was playing around in the shop today making a small dovetailed box with some leftover cherry. I cut the pins and tails on the bandsaw and was cleaning up the bottoms with mallet and chisel - thus I'm cutting across the end grain. I'd been doing exactly the same thing yesterday with some red oak and things were going very nicely, using any of my three smaller chisels. But on the cherry today, the wood was compacting and tearing out, instead of shearing. The chisels seem to be plenty sharp - they cut oak just fine. But made a mess of the cherry. Anyone else encounter this? Is it common with cherry?

TIA!
Chris

Chris,

First thing that popped into my head is "The chisel is dull" - Dry cherry is a dream to work with. DOuble check your chisels are razor sharp though. I sharpen mine to 25 degrees, and I can literally shave with them.

Oak is a much stouter wood, and a dull chisel won't do as much damage to it.

Hope this helps
-Gregory