planing tips for lacewood?

[Dan Forman]

Has anyone out there had success using handplanes with lacewood?

I picked up some nice lacewood a while ago, got around to playing with it this evening and found it to be quite difficult to plane. I tried my LV BUS with low, med, and high angle blades, all of them left tearout, as did a 60 degree woodie (Mujinfang) and a standard Bailey 4. The blades were all freshly sharpened to 8000 grit waterstone. It seemed like the higher angles actually did a bit worse than the low. The grain is running pretty flat, so there was no "with" or "against" the grain, but I tried going in both directions anyway, with no difference noted. I finally had to resort to sanding, but would much rather use a plane.

Dan

[Alan Turner]

The only plane that I have successfully used on Lacewood is an HNT Gordon smoother. This is bedded at 60 degrees, and has a very tight mouth. It is still a hard and nervous making push, however.

For lacewood, abrasives are not a bad choice. It is a very difficult wood to plane without tear out.

[Steve Wargo]

What Alan said. Steep pitch, sharp cambered iron, and very shallow cuts. Don't go for a full width shaving on this one. Nasty stuff to plane, but scrapes fairly well. I've used it a bit, and don't fret over sanding this one. Good luck.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I use lacewood for a lot of the drawer fronts in my shop. I find that my Clark & Williams 55 degree smoother set for a very fine shaving does the job nicely without any tearout whatsover. Having said that however, it is slow work when you are only taking off about .001" at a time. If I'm in a hurry, I'll often sand it down with the random orbit sander and do the final few passes with the C & W. It saves a lot of time.

[Zahid Naqvi]

I have used lacewood on a couple of projects so far. I don't have a high angle smoother so I tried the usual culprits, even a low angle block plane. My final decision was to use sandpaper. But I went up to a 600 grit as the final finish and hand rubbed it for several days using mineral spirits and a dash of BLO as lube. The end result was quite satisfactory for my standards. The good thing about Lacewood is that the contrast between the two tones inherent in the wood is quite strong, so there is no chance of the figure disappearing. Since there is no 3D effect, as in curly woods, a neatly shaved surface doesn't enhance the visual appeal. Essentially the only thing to make sure is that the final surface is smooth to the touch, with hand rubbing at 600 grit the final finish was glassy smooth.

[Mark Singer]

I have used lacewood...I can't remember planing it...some woods, zebra included must be sanded and that is ok....its the best end result we are after and not driving ourselves crazy...a high angled wood body like a Knight wood be my first try...and cross your fingers helps too;)

[John Miliunas]

While I'm no expert, I'll have to echo what the rest of the guys said. I've done several smaller pieces w/Lacewood and only after a couple swipes with my 4-1/2 w/York pitch, I quickly resolved myself to going the sandpaper route! :) :cool:

[tod evans]

figure=scraper....02 tod

[Don Naples]

Dan: Lacewood is easily planed with a sharp plane iron and a tight throat. There is no tearout when fine shavings are taken.
http://www.woodartistry.com/WNimages/lacewood.jpg

[Dan Forman]

Thanks guys. Guess I'll see if I can tighten the mouth and take a finer shaving, and see if I can get the old #80 cab scraper working.

Dan

[Mark Stutz]

Dan,
From the looks of Don's post, you NEED a nice infill smoother!:D ;)

[Don Naples]

http://www.woodartistry.com/WNimages/lacewood3.jpgMark: yes, an infill smoother will also work, but so will a 604 with a Stanley plane iron if it is sharp.
http://www.woodartistry.com/WNimages/lacewood3

[Mark Stutz]

http://www.woodartistry.com/WNimages/lacewood3.jpg... but so will a 604 with a Stanley plane iron if it is sharp.
http://www.woodartistry.com/WNimages/lacewood3

Don,
That's too bad;) :D

Dan,
I still think you NEED;) :D :eek: an infill!

Mark ( who is trying hard not to pull the trigger! Maybe I should make something out of lacewood!:D )

[Alan DuBoff]

yes, an infill smoother will also work, but so will a 604 with a Stanley plane iron if it is sharp.http://www.woodartistry.com/WNimages/lacewood3Don, what about the chisel/scraper, would that work or is the lacewood too soft?

[Don Naples]

Don, what about the chisel/scraper, would that work or is the lacewood too soft? Alan: The lacewood is too soft and the chisel scraper too difficult to control on such a soft wood. I use it daily on Bubinga and Jatoba to clean glue lines that have dried. Lacewood has beautiful chatoyancy when planed. One just needs a sharp plane iron to get smooth results without tearout.
Don

[Alan DuBoff]

Alan: The lacewood is too soft and the chisel scraper too difficult to control on such a soft wood. I use it daily on Bubinga and Jatoba to clean glue lines that have dried. Lacewood has beautiful chatoyancy when planed. One just needs a sharp plane iron to get smooth results without tearout.
DonThat's what I suspected and why I asked. I looked at some lacewood recentely and was surprised at how light and soft it was, I thought similar to some of the softer mahoganys.

Looks like the Lap-Sharp gets those blades plenty sharp to plane lacewood!;)<wink><wink></wink></wink>

[Dan Forman]

Dan,
From the looks of Don's post, you NEED a nice infill smoother!:D ;)

Mark---You are 100% correct! Perhaps Mr's Sauer or Anderson will have pity on me and send me one. Now that all of those planes were mauled at the Pop WW office, they could hardly be sold as new don't you see? Maybe they could send us each one? :D :cool:

Dan

[Dan Forman]

Not to dissuade the above gentlemen from any benificent actions, but I did get my Mojo working as far as planing the lacewood. It seems I was not going for thin enough shavings earlier. I backed off the blade just a smigeon, tightened up the mouth, and had much better results. The angle of the blade didn't seem to matter, they all worked well, though the low angle was just about effortless to push. The pic below shows the board I sanded to 400 grit last night on the left, and the freshly planed piece on the right.

Dan

[Mike Wenzloff]

Looks like very nice results, Dan.

Like Don has said time and again. Sharpen. Set. Shavings. Well, alliterations aside, it really is that "simple."

Take care, Mike