Help with BE Maple

[Nick Clayton]

So I've been trying to increase my projects looks by working with more figured woods. I am currently in the middle of making a shaker hall table where I'm going to use bird's eye maple for the top. Now i'm stuck with figuring out how to surface the top. I've heard people say to only sand it or you'll get tear out while others will use a low angle bevel up smoother(which I would rather not buy), a scraper, and still others that will only use a block plane with a 55 degree pitch. On top of that folks are saying to wet the wood or harden it with shellac prior to smoothing.

I'me planing on using an amber dye to get a rich warm color, but am concerned that this will emphasize any tear out from planning or dulling from sanding.

What are you're experiences and how did you over come any problems to get the best results?

[Dan Oliphant]

Nick, I fabricated a hall table using birdseye maple that was resawn to 1/8 from thicker stock (thanks again John Fry) I did not experience any tear out issues. Material was sanded to 180 grit after planing (lightly) then followed with scrapers.