Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chase View Post
How much tearout are you getting on the Walnut and African Mahogany? Are we talking about a train wreck, or just isolated spots of particularly problematic grain? Also how thick are your smoothing cuts and how deep is the resulting tearout?

If you're getting localized shallow tearout then I'd second the suggestion for some sort of scraper, though I'd go with a card scraper over a #80 for anything localized. If you think about the cutting mechanics of a properly "hooked" scraper it's equivalent to a plane with an ultra-tightly-set cap iron. The hook cuts at a fairly low angle, and then the face of the scraper immediately turns the chip and breaks it. With a card scraper you can work small spots, and you have direct control over the cutting angle.

Warren can probably plane everything without tearout using his #3. I can't manage that, but I can usually get all but the worst spots and then clean those with a card scraper.

IMO sharpening is like golf in the sense that it's one of those things that you can always improve, so your comment in another post about being "pretty confident" in your technique sets off some alarm bells for me. What medium are you finishing/polishing on?

EDIT: The OP didn't say he'd perfected anything. Revised accordingly.
the tear-out i'm getting is small isolated spots where the grain changes. And you cant hardly even notice it once its sanded, the grain is filled, and then finished, i just know that it's there and i want things to be perfect. i can approach it from the other side, but then the other area around it tears out. A card scraper would likely help address these small areas, and i plan on getting one, but there's other things that i could spend the money on right now.

yes ,my sharpening could likely improve, but i think that it could only do so by a small degree. I use sandpaper on a granite block up to 3000 grit and then finish on a strop. with a freshly sharpened blade i get fluffy translucent thin shavings.