Working birds eye maple

[lowell holmes]

Will a bevel up smoother with a toothed iron eliminate tear out on birdseye maple? Will spritzing with water help?

[Tony Shea]

The toothed blade will certainly help and work to tame the tearout as you're rough planing. I use mine a lot for this task. Then i clean all this up with a finely set smoother that is super sharp and cap iron set real close. Birds eye can be one of the trickiest wood to get perfect but is worth the effort.

[lowell holmes]

My new procedure for birdseye maple I worked out this morning in case your interested.

First, in the June 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking is a David Charlesworth article concerning setting up Stanley 80 scraper plane. I set my 80 up in exact accordance with the article.
I will have to find my old copy of the issue to make sure of what I did, so don't ask, this old man just does not remember.

I tried the following this morning and declared it a success.

1. Rip with a band saw ( I avoid ripping on the table saw as much as I can).

2. Hand plane with a Veritas bevel up smoother using a toothed iron.

3. Scrape with a properly set up card scraper.

Voila', the figure jumped out and there is no chipping.

OBTW, my Stanley 80 produces curly shavings, not powder. If you haven't seen the Charlesworth article, order it.

For the life of me, I don't know why we don't see more of Charlesworth's work.

[george wilson]

Maybe I'm crazy,but I won't use birdseye maple. People living in areas where it grows have an unusually high cancer rate. They don't know why.

[lowell holmes]

It was not my preference, I prefer curly maple. My friend really preferred the birds eye.

The birdseye is much crankier to work.

I probably would have chosen sapele. I really like it.

[Frank Drew]

I think any of the figured hard maples can be spectacular under finish.

George, Vermont has an unusually high cancer rate?