How do I reduce figured wood tearout?

[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."