I am hoping for some wisdom from the collective on planing ash. I have some ash that is currently kicking my rear. The wood in question was 6/4 kiln dried and sat in my workshop for about 2 months with a moisture content of ~8% before I began working with it.
It is highly figured with interlocking and wild grain throughout. I chose it for that reason because it will be table top and my wife loves figured wood and I wanted to work with ash before it is extinct. I also enjoy a challenge.
I have worked all sorts or pine, cherry, and soft, hard, and quilted maple, but this batch of ash is making me look (more) foolish.
My tools of choice are well set Stanley type 11 4,5, and 7.
My primary issue is that this ash has rebuffed my best sharpening. I hollow grind, freehand hone on 1000 and 8000 grit water stones, and finish with green compound on horse butt strop. I sharpen frequently, maybe to often because I enjoy how a wood responds to a freshly sharpened iron. This process has worked well for my previous projects including on woods that are harder than ash. Because the ash resisted my sharpest iron, I refreshed the hollows and started from scratch. This worked for a few passes but then then wood began to respond as if my irons were dull. Have others that have worked with ash experienced this or have I suddenly lost my ability to sharpen? I thought the latter was the case. Earlier this week I carefully sharpened everything and pulled out some hard maple to test on. The plane worked wonderfully. With the same plane, I returned to the ash and I could not get a consistent shaving for anything.
Second issue is tear out. I anticipated some difficulty as started because of the grain pattern but it has become ridiculous. Even with an incredibly sharp and close set cap iron and very light passes, the tear out is uncontrollable and quite hideous. Any thoughts as to how I might overcome this? I’m pulling my hair out! I know my planes are capable of working without tear out so this is definitely operator error but I have been unable diagnose the problem and develop a solution.
Last issue is also wood related. When I picked up the wood. It had slight cup and twist. No big deal as I have worked with much worse. Despite my problems with the wood, I have managed to joint one face and edge on a couple of pieces but the wood continues to twist. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I can’t keep removing the twist because I want have any wood left.
Any thoughts on any of this or do I have an expensive stack of firewood on my hands?
Thanks in advance.