Advice needed on hand-planing Zebrawood

[Ian Peter]

A client gave me a nice piece of vertical grain zebrawood to make into a small tabletop. It's the first time I've worked with this wood, and I'm finding it difficult to get a smooth finish from the handplane. Any suggestions for taming this grain that seems to change direction between growth rings would be greatly appreciated! After jointing it on a Hammer A3-31 (with new knives) there was moderate tear-out in some areas. I then used a freshly sharpened LN 5 1/2 with high-angle frog as a smoother for what should be a final finish. Not!

I'd rather not break out the sander it if at all possible, and I'm hoping some of you who have experience working zebrawood can come to my rescue.

Thanks in advance,


Ian

[David Weaver]

You need to use the cap iron set close or very thin shavings (or both) and sharp as you can get the plane. And then vacuum the pores out after you're done planing it, they'll probably be full of dust.

I never loved the wood, and IIRC, when you work it, it stinks.

[Daniel Rode]

I have a few small pieces set aside. It smells awful!

You need to use the cap iron set close or very thin shavings (or both) and sharp as you can get the plane. And then vacuum the pores out after you're done planing it, they'll probably be full of dust.

I never loved the wood, and IIRC, when you work it, it stinks.

[David Weaver]

I might be getting zebrawood confused with palm when thinking about vacuuming post-planing dust out of it.

Either way, I remember the smell. I also remember thinking that for as splintery as it was and as interesting looking as it was, it would've been nice if it was denser.

cocobolo is another wood (that I recall more about) where there are wild variations in hardness on the face of a board, and you can get a near perfect surface on the edges and then turn to the face and get tiny little tearouts everywhere. But cocobolo smells much better.

[george wilson]

I hate the looks of zebra wood,as well as the troubles of planing it. I solved the trouble of dealing with it by giving mine away years ago.:)

[Ian Peter]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I remember reading one of Chris Schwartz's blog posts where he honed (and polished) a 50 degree secondary bevel on the chipbreaker, and set it as close as possible to the edge of the blade. This combination apparently was a magic bullet for planing nasty woods. So I will give that a try next...and keep my fingers crossed!

[Roy Lindberry]

Have you tried a scraper? Since you already have it flat, and are just taming tear-out, I think that might work for you.

[david charlesworth]

When ever high angle frogs are mentioned, I just want to shout, "TRY A MINUTE BACKBEVEL". 25degrees will work well with this hard timber.

David Charlesworth

See it working in my techniques DVD.