How do I reduce figured wood tearout?

[Randall J Cox]

I'm making a jewelry box with hinged lid and two drawers. Pretty significant undertaking for me. I am working with some decent cherry, some of which is figured. I am getting some significant tearout on the figured part of the wood on my Delta 15" planer. How do I minimize this? I have the small panels planed down to 5/8" so far and will be planing down to 1/2" for a jewelry box I'm making for a family member. I've only made one other small jewelry box, very simple (no hinge or drawers), in my life. I cant afford to buy a shelix head with carbide blades, so what is left to do that may help? When I started seeing the tearout, I started misting the figured part of the boards to soften the fibers, thinking that may help. Maybe if I wait a couple of minutes for water to soak in or maybe take lighter cuts that may help? I've never had the "pleasure" of working with figured wood before so this is new to me. Not sure how sharp my blades are, installed in 2015 when I bought and rehabbed the planer. I do use it about once a month, but not that much. It seems to cut nice and smooth on non figured hardwood boards. Any tips appreciated on minimizing tearout! Randy

[Patrick Kane]

Randy, your blades are definitely dull. In all things woodworking, sharp trumps all. If you have a poor setup on your hands, a sharp blade will make up for the mouth being too open, or the chipbreaker improperly positioned etc. Same for chisels, turning gouges, bandsaw blades etc. How figured is this material? You may never be able to completely avoid tearout. In my experience, wiping the face down with a wet rag does help a lot with tearout. Skewing the piece on a straight blade planer can also help.

If you cant/wont swap the blades in your planer, you can sharpen your hand planes and take the panels down the final 1/8" by hand. once you get within the last 1/32-1/16" of thickness, you can scrape the surface to final dimension. Your parts are most likely pretty small, so doing it by hand wouldnt be too much of a chore.

[Prashun Patel]

I'm inclined to agree with Patrick. Swap out your blades. In addition, notice the direction of the grain on the side of the board. You may be able to reverse the direction of the feed to reduce the tearout. Change your blades first, though.

[Paul F Franklin]

Figured grain changes direction a lot which is always a challenge, but do make sure you are running the boards through the planer with the bulk of the grain oriented correctly. Which is to say if you examine the edge of the board with it positioned to feed into the planer, the grain lines will ideally slope up and away from the bed of the planer. If the grain is all squirrely, try turning the board end for end and see if that reduces the tearout. Running it through at an angle can help to, as Patrick mentioned. The sharper the blades the better, and the lighter the cut the better.

[Mike Henderson]

This is one place where a drum sander helps. Finish taking your stock down to size with the drum sander and you won't have any tearout.

But you may not have a drum sander. In that case, follow the suggestions above.

Mike

[Dhaval Patel]

Taking real shallow passes could help as well. If the board you are planing is not too long, use of low angel jack plane would be another option-- of course more muscle and labor needed.

[Zachary Hoyt]

In my experience a drum sander or disc sander is indeed the best way. I've had some curly maple that will plane okay, but with some tearout, and some that are really prone to tearout, I don't know what makes the difference.

[Randall J Cox]

I'll change out the blades, as I have some recently sharpened ones. And I'll take lighter passes on the wood. And I'll mist the boards lightly and wait longer for the mist to penetrate the face to a degree. I have looked at grain direction but, unfortunately only after I glued up the boards into panels. Not all going same direction. I'll plane to aid most figured boards, that should help also. comments. Even though I have some decent planes, hand planing 4 glued up panels is not an option for me, I could never really get them flat. And no I don't have a drum sander, nor room for one. Panels too wide to skew through planer (13" panels and 15" planer) Anyway, thanks all for all the good comments. Now I have a direction! Randy

[Dhaval Patel]

I'll change out the blades, as I have some recently sharpened ones. And I'll take lighter passes on the wood. And I'll mist the boards lightly and wait longer for the mist to penetrate the face to a degree. I have looked at grain direction but, unfortunately only after I glued up the boards into panels. Not all going same direction. I'll plane to aid most figured boards, that should help also. comments. Even though I have some decent planes, hand planing 4 glued up panels is not an option for me, I could never really get them flat. And no I don't have a drum sander, nor room for one. Panels too wide to skew through planer (13" panels and 15" planer) Anyway, thanks all for all the good comments. Now I have a direction! Randy


One thing I would say is that helical cutter head on the planer is much better than straight knives. I used to have Dewalt 12" planer. Good enough to handle smaller width lumber. But a few months back I ended up with a 20" planer from Grizzly with helical cutter head. It is much quieter and produced pretty smooth surface. Of course you need to do finish sanding or planing, but much better than the straight knives. If you ever consider either getting a planer or upgrading in future, please give the one with helical cutter head a thought... Just my two cents here...

[Richard Coers]

Super sharp blades, damp cloth wipe down before each pass to soften the grain, and run the stock at the most extreme angle you can through the planer to get a shearing cut.

[Randall J Cox]

The good news is that I learn something new every day. Another learning experience! ha ha Seriously, appreciate all the experience and wisdom on this forum! Randy

[Robert Engel]

A card scaper is the best tool for final prep.

Veneer would be a good option for your project.

[glenn bradley]

Given your cost restrictions a fresh set of blades is going to be your best bet. Wetting the surface and running the material through with attention to grain direction will help. Running the material at a slant to provide a shearing action can also help of the dimensions allow it. Good luck

[Randall J Cox]

Put in a new set of knives today, need to put the planer back together tomorrow. Randy

[Chris Fournier]

The suggestion of wetting the wood prior to planing is excellent and has helped me many times in the past. I use a spray bottle and let the wood sit for a couple minutes and then take a light pass. Card scrapers ar useful but you will likely end up with an uneven surface that shows terribly. Good luck with the sharp knives.

[Warren Lake]

if they are high speed steel new knives or knives back from a sharpener are not really sharp until you hone them. then they will be dangerous when you put them in. Its how we were taught and there was often some blood involved.

Sharp knives are not always a guarantee of not chipping, at times having a secondary bevel will cut cleaner on challenging material.

Reducing feed rate makes an amazing difference, On the SCM i can pull it out of gear and hold a board back as it slows then kick it in gear then out before it gets to speed. Mickey mouse but gets the job done Rather have a seperate gear drive motor on the transmission and be able to dial in speed little woodmaster moulder. It can cut very clean though I do have a larger custom head in it which also makes a difference.

[Edwin Santos]

I hope you will report back with the results after experimenting with some of the suggestions here.
I've had issues with tearout on bird's eye maple before and the misting/wetting of the wood before planing helped quite a bit. But I'm always looking for other techniques.

[David Kumm]

The 15" planers lack a well designed chipbreaker which helps with the figured wood thing. A secondary bevel can really help. A good sharpener ( I use Woodworker Tool Works ) can customize the blade if you talk to him about the type or wood, diameter of the head, and tip speed of the knives. Dave

[Mel Fulks]

Every set of knives I've seen that were in NEW planers were of the lowest type made. Think new car tires.
Buy some T-1 or M-2 knives and you will be fine. Be careful , some sellers will send you "knives with same hardness as
M-2"

[Kevin Jenness]

I run HSS straight knives with a 10 degree secondary bevel on my Powermatic 160, which definitely helps with figured wood, as does cranking down the feed speed all the way. I had heard of dampening the wood but never tried it until this thread jogged my memory. It definitely improves things.

That said, planing highly figured wood with straight knives is always a bit of a crapshoot. The safest approach, as one old-timer put it, is "saw and sand, young fella."