How to Read the End Grain Direction for Hand Planing

Рет қаралды 14,581

7 ай бұрын

This is a little talked about method for determining the grain direction of a board. Especially helpful for real world boards where the grain is squirrely or figured. Consider it an additional check even with a lovely straight grained pieces.
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Пікірлер: 44

@mcapo3040 7 ай бұрын

Best tip I've been shown in a long time, thank you!

@1deerndingo 7 ай бұрын

Thats gold! If I'm not wood working or doing chores I'm reading or watching videos about wood work. I've run out of new content to watch. No one has shown me that jewel. That is a game changer. How tight was the mouth on that plane.

@bruceallen3643 7 ай бұрын

The only other person I've seen cover this is Nick Englar at workshop companion

@philipbyrnes7501 6 ай бұрын

Brilliant, thanks Shannon. Now just have to remember it’s all upside down, down here, down under doh lol Really great advice as usual and yeah, I remember back in 2010 when you started out here and Matt and Mark and Matt v2 :) Thank you and the boys for all your videos on your channels and of course, woodtalk 👅👍 Alongside Rob Cosman and Stumpy Nubs, thanks James :) you have combined to make me into quite an accomplished woodworker with the knowledge you’ve all shared and that I have used and tried and adapted and learned from. Thank you each and may you be mightily blessed throughout this year and many more to come Take care and a very Happy New Year to you and yours Shannon, with the greatest of respect from Phil, and many others I’m sure, down here in Aus 😎👅👍

@larryprice5134 7 ай бұрын

I appreciate how real you are about woodworking concepts!

@imager8763 7 ай бұрын

Wow! This helps a lot!

@robnichols9331 7 ай бұрын

Really useful - thank you

@zeuszuki6698 7 ай бұрын

Fantastic tip! Because you pronouned Antarctica correctly, as opposed to "An ar di ca" (which most American people who even go there do, missing out the T), I have been there many times and subscribe to your channel, it could pseudo count 😅

@JoeMcMaster-sz9uy 7 ай бұрын

This couldn’t have come at a better time! Had some thin stock incredibly curly maple I need to smooth out tonight and your technique is working flawlessly!! I used to guess right a little more than half the time, but figured boards always gave me headaches to where I’d leave thickness to ensure I could correct tear-out if I guessed wrong. Truly appreciate your help and you just saved me tons of aggregation (and time sanding)!!

@Control-Freak 7 ай бұрын

Always something more to learn with hand tools, thanks Shannon!

@aizliegtsv 7 ай бұрын

Wow, thanks for the tip!

@2Bstrifeless 7 ай бұрын

Thank you for actually teaching! Great explanations and demonstration!

@ef2b 7 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing this. I expect it will help me immensely. I am trying to think of how to apply this when the board is more plain sawn rather than quarter or rift. I'm guessing you need to recognize inside vs. outside of the tree and read the cathedral to know which way the fibers are going and then skew to cause the fibers to be supported.

@rostoi6985 7 ай бұрын

Hello. Good tip, thanks.

@slowrelease395 7 ай бұрын

I wish I'd know this much earlier! Thank you!

@chriscunicelli7070 7 ай бұрын

Thank you sir that helps

@dpmeyer4867 7 ай бұрын

Thanks

@TWC6724 7 ай бұрын

This is interesting. Thanks Shannon. Going to try this approach. Recently just had a drawer front that had a patch I just couldn’t get smooth.

@richr1925 7 ай бұрын

Excellent video and advice. Even after 70 years of doing this kind of thing, it always helps to review the basics. Now, let's talk about planing something like the surface of that work bench you're using. Not only does the grain shift and twist in every board that makes up the top, but every 12-24" the plane has to deal with a different piece of wood and its unique grain. I'm currently truing up my (maple top) workbench. I can plane diagonally across the top without too much pain, but almost any attempt to plane at less than 45 degrees down the length tries to defeat my 5-1/2 jack plane and diligent honing of its blade. Thanks for your well-done educational efforts, Rich

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

If you break down that workbench top into a series of high spots and low spots then tackle each of those spot individually instead of trying to flatten the entire top you will have more success. Once those high spots are gone then a light pass across the entire tip to blend it all together will net a flat top and no frustration about all those grain changes.

@AfromusPrime 7 ай бұрын

This is fascinating. I love curly wood, so this could really help me. Going to try it on some curly maple.

@paulfriedman4767 7 ай бұрын

WOW Shannon, that's so logical. I can't wait to try that in practice.

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

as with all things in woodworking I can't claim to be the first person to think of this. Its just one of those tips that doesn't get a lot of press.

@Myrkskog 7 ай бұрын

I'm going to have to give this a try. I've always relied on sharpness and minimal projection to get me out of annoying/tough spots with figured and tricky grain.

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

Oh those are still imperative. Sharp fixes everything!

@johnschillo4452 5 ай бұрын

perfect

@JackFright 7 ай бұрын

Thanks! You just fixed some curly cherry for me.

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

How dare you imply that curly Cherry needs to be fixed! LOL

@JackFright 7 ай бұрын

@@RenaissanceWW hehe. Well it DOES look better nicely-smoothed ;)

@Mikey__R 7 ай бұрын

Hey Shannon. I've got a board of heavily interlocked Elm I've tried and failed to face plane for about 14 years at this point. I think I'm going to dig it out and see if I can finally tame it using these tips. If all else fails, there's always sandpaper.

@Mikey__R 7 ай бұрын

Oh, and one more thing: what they don't tell you, is Stanley planes were made for carpentry. There's a reason why Norris, Spiers, Mathieson and others made infill planes specifically for cabinetmakers.

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

but do you understand why those planes perform the way they do? That understanding will allow you to tune any plane to perform well or if nothing else adjust your tactics to the specific situation.

@Mikey__R 7 ай бұрын

@@RenaissanceWW All of my Stanleys have upgraded Hock irons. I believe you said on a recent Wood Talk Radio podcast that a premium handplane takes out the guesswork; I think using a good iron gets you halfway there. But my Norris blows them all out of the water. At this point, I'm willing to accept the reason is witchcraft.

@Mikey__R 7 ай бұрын

Oh, and I have done a fair amount to tune up the Stanleys. I think I've got them working relatively well, but they could probably be tweaked even further.

@RYwoodview 7 ай бұрын

Do you think a low-angle jack plane is an advantage in these situations, Shannon?

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

Not really no. But that’s a loaded question with about 10 variables

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

Oh BTW video coming out later this month that starts to address this at a deeper level.

@RYwoodview 7 ай бұрын

Good!@@RenaissanceWW

@frugal10191 7 ай бұрын

Surely you are still applying force in the same direction, all you are doing is effectively lowering the blade angle by skewing the plane. So theoretically the same result should be obtained with a low angle plane straight down the board.

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

you're not wrong about the effective angle but there is a different action happening here in that the vector created is at an angle to the travel of the plane. This is evidenced by the shifting of the shaving laterally as well as the uncoiled shape. Combine that vector with the directional nature of the fibers and this is much more than just the angle of the blade.

@wilburpan 7 ай бұрын

It's true that skewing the blade will effectively lower the blade angle, but that's not why this approach works. Lowering the blade angle actually makes it more likely for tearout to happen. In fact, one other method of reducing tearout is to use a plane with a higher blade angle, such as using a high angle frog, or a scraper/scraper plane.

@RenaissanceWW 7 ай бұрын

@@wilburpan stay tuned, I have another video coming out shortly that really gets into the weeds on the physics of this...but, yes, what you said.

@damiencwalker 7 ай бұрын

The key to using a skewed position is it causes the blade to shear laterally through the wood fibres, creating a far more effective cutting action and lowering the force being pushed through the fibres - like sawing a knife through bread versus pushing a knife straight down through the loaf. Additionally, skewing in the same direction as the rising grain means the fibres at the cutting edge are supported by the fibres they're laying on top of, making it far less prone to tear-out. You're right that the skew does lower the effective cutting angle, but the shearing action wins in the tradeoff.