Khaya or Sapele

[lowell holmes]

I'm thinking about blanket chests for my grand daughters. I like the ribbon appearance of some African wood species.

I understand Khaya and Sapele are not the same. My question is, being ribbon grain, which specie is most difficult to hand plane?

I know you have to plane cross grain with Sapele.

Also, what is Genuine Mahogany?

[Casey Gooding]

They will probably be very similar when working with planes. You will almost certainly have to sand it to get it smooth.
When people refer to "Genuine Mahogany" that historically meant Cuban mahogany which is essentially extinct today. Honduras Mahogany is probably the closest wood available today. There are a number of other species frequently referred to as mahogany.

[lowell holmes]

How do scrapers work? I use card scrapers a lot and also a Stanley scraper that is set up to Charlesworth's spec. It makes a lot of curly little shavings.

[Curt Putnam]

I am currently in the (slow) process of building some dovetail corner blanket chests from Khaya (aka African Mahogany). Since my hand plane skills are still in the developing stage, I gave up and used a sander. Every plane I've tried tears out as do scrapers. Even my LN 102 which I thought was working well, under close inspection, was still producing tears. I'm sure Derek could plane it with ease, and maybe I'll get there someday, but for now, it's the sander. YMMV

[Tony Shea]

I'd be curious if the chipbreaker method that is all the hype at the moment would tame the tearout from ribbon stripe sapele. Everything that I've tested so far by correctly setting the chipbreaker seems to not tear out at all. I bet you'll be surprised to find very little if any tearout if you set up the chipbreaker properly. For a while I was trying not to cave in to all the hype around this new found method but one cannot argue against the results it produces, it works every time.

[lowell holmes]

I know that on Sapele, if you hand plane cross grain it will minimize tear out.

I ran into the same thing with vertical grain fir that I am using on a new back door. Straight grain fir planes well enough on the edges, but if I try to level glue joints, the tea rout was fierce.

[Warren Mickley]

I'd be curious if the chipbreaker method that is all the hype at the moment would tame the tearout from ribbon stripe sapele. Everything that I've tested so far by correctly setting the chipbreaker seems to not tear out at all. I bet you'll be surprised to find very little if any tearout if you set up the chipbreaker properly. For a while I was trying not to cave in to all the hype around this new found method but one cannot argue against the results it produces, it works every time.

I have no trouble planing ribbon stripe sapele with a double iron plane. Khaya is a genus with several species producing lumber and I am not sure which ones I have worked. I have planed ribbon figure for decades; I am not sure how much trouble it would be for a beginner.

True mahogany is wood of the genus Swetenia, which is in the Chinaberry family, Meliaceae. Khaya and sapele are also in the chinaberry family. True mahogany includes island mahogany (Cuban, Santo Domingo, etc), which is called Swietenia mahogani, Hondorus mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), and one other.

[Brian Holcombe]

I use a 55 degree frog smoother, with a very small mouth setting and tight to the edge chip breaker. If that fails me I just plane cross grain or diagonal.

Not specific to sapele, just on hellish grains in general.

[Daniel Hartmann]

I used a scraper plane on the Khaya top on my standing desk to great affect. http://itinerantwoodshop.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/2014/

[Mike Allen1010]

Of all the woods sold as mahogany, I've personally had much more trouble w/ tear out w/ the Afician or Kahya. Island/central american and Philippine work over well w/ Sharp edge tools and yield minimal TO, FWIW.
Cheers, Mike

[David Weaver]

For a while I was trying not to cave in to all the hype around this new found method but one cannot argue against the results it produces, it works every time.

I got a chuckle out of this, being one of the "hypers"

You'll find the double iron frees you up to do all kinds of things, like fiddle with what stones you use and rely less on sharpness to reduce tearout. It'll also free you to use good quality stock irons instead of premium ones, and see a very good surface and an iron that lasts plenty long but grinds and sharpness several orders faster and on anything.

I think when all is said and done, what we'll call hype is higher angle frogs and such things that literally cost more than an entire vintage plane, and in turn make the plane using them less versatile.

[Scott Stewart]

I really hate to be the slow kid in the room.... but as a new neanderthal... can someone point me in the direction of the "chipbreaker" method pointed out above? I am having a bad time when I try to plane QS oak. Sorry for hijack. Thank you. Scott

[lowell holmes]

Scott,

What they are referring to is there are bevel down hand planes, which require a chip breaker mounted on the iron (blade). There are also hand planes that have bevel up iron hand planes. Lee Valley and Lie Nielsen both make them. Either brand is to die for.

My current favorite blade and chip breaker combination is Lee Valley. I had never heard the expression "Double Iron" plane before, but I'm sure the term refers to the blade and chip breaker.

You probably realize that you are on a very slippery slope. I have close to 20 hand planes and regularly use about 6 of them. Others are used for special needs, like rebates, dadoes, truing mortise cheeks, and so on.

[Kees Heiden]

Hi Scott,

This month's Popular woodworking magazine has an article about the subject. In the mean time you can visit my blog and have a look at an instructional video:
http://seekelot.blogspot.nl/2012/06/...ipbreaker.html

[Jim Matthews]

My loudspeaker cabinets are ribbon sapele.

This stuff is fracturing along the reversing grain lines,
as that's where the grain direction appears to be alternating.

It's nearly impossible for me to cleanly plane by hand, which requires
considerable scraping (I hate card scrapers) and sanding to achieve an even surface.

Laundering clothes contaminated by Sapele dust has elicited allergic reactions from several members of my house.

Never again.TG quattro in Sapele.jpg