Although I am an amateur woodworker for 30 years, just recently I turned attention from electric tools to hand tools working. After lots of researches I decided for a Jack plane from Lie Nielsen as my second serious plane after LN block plane. It looked the best plane for more difficults situations and much more simple to set up and to use for a newcomer...
I started with Jacaranda, or Brazilian Rosewood, with acceptable results. It is a (very) hard wood common for furniture making in Brazil. Afterwards I went to white pine to make a TV table for my son and I got also good results except for one piece where I got tear out for its difficult fiber direction (changed constantly).
Today I decided to make a small book case to use over my daughter's working table. I went to a piece of Mahogany I purchased 25 years ago - it is one of the favorites wood for fine woodworking here in Brazil. I milled it with no problems and my Makita box planer made a very good job but one edge was with some saw marking after to rip them to the size... great opportunity to use my Jack plane, I thought. But for my deception, all I got was a lot of tear out. Yes, I observed the fiber directions but as you probably know, it is common for Mahogany to have portions with a messing fiber direction and I really expected a low angle plane could cope with that better. It couldn't. Interestingly my electric tools look to work better with a such woods (box planer, saw, router and, of course, my salvation, sander).
I studied a lot on the use of hand planes, reading and watching videos, but obviously it was not enough to avoid a such disaster. I need more practice but I would appreciate if you can share your experience in order to speed up my learn process.
Thank you in advance for any feedback.