Does cold wood work different the warm ?

[Bill Huber]

I was finishing some cutting boards today and was having a lot of problem with tear out when I was just putting a 1/2 inch round over on the boards. The tear out was on the sides also and not just the ends.

I have done this many time in the past with no problems. I honed the bit like I normal do before I started and it was sharp, in fact my thumb can prove it.

The only difference that I could come up was the temperature. It was only around 35 today and in the shop it was only maybe 40.

Could this be what my problem was?

[Philip Glover]

Bill,
What kind of wood is it?
Here in New England it's common for people work cold wood. I find white oak to be sensitive to tear-out when edge routing. For this reason I always do my last two cuts as light climb cuts. Although I have not tried it, I'll bet that cold oak may tear out even worse than it would warm.

Regards,
Phil

[Bill Huber]

Bill,
What kind of wood is it?
Here in New England it's common for people work cold wood. I find white oak to be sensitive to tear-out when edge routing. For this reason I always do my last two cuts as light climb cuts. Although I have not tried it, I'll bet that cold oak may tear out even worse than it would warm.

Regards,
Phil

Most of the tear out was on the purple heart, the maple only had one small tear out but on the purple heart I got a lot.
The grain was running up and down, I was doing the finish on end grain boards.
I found I have 2 blocks that I cut off and I have one of them in the house to get warm and the other one I left in the shop. Tomorrow I am going to do a test and see if the cold is the problem.

[John Schreiber]

I've worked a lot of wood in the cold, it's hard to get my shop above 40 F in the winter, and I've never noticed any difference. I'm curious to see what you learn in your tests.

[Bill Huber]

Well it was me.........

I cut a round over on both and got the same tear out.
So I got out another bit and tried another corner, worked just fine.
I looked at the bit I first use and I think I honed it bad.
I guess I need to do a better job honing my bits. The bit was sharp but the edges was not on the flat part of the bit. Which would mean that the edges were not at the same angle or the same distance from the work.

This is what I mean about the bit, if this makes since.

75953

[Tom Cowie]

Bill I work a lot with Purpleheart and have worked with it in the sub freezing temps. Cold is probably not your issue I think it is the moisture content of the wood. This wood is very dense and tends to tear out for me when too dry. It will all have some oil content in the wood to change to the deep purple color after any milling is done but if it is too dry it usually causes me problems. Also it will tend to burn easily.

Tom