Replies

1. 
   mikeddd | Nov 15, 2009 02:43am | #1

    Wanda I copied this picture from a FWW article. They say it's worth a thousand words. Good luck.

   Mike

   
2. 
   DonStephan | Nov 15, 2009 03:53am | #2

   Glad you reminded me, the direction of the cathedrals has different meaning on the bark and heart sides.

   I THINK we plane towards the top of the cathedral on the bark side (the log is getting narrower towards the crown) and away from the top of the cathedral on the heartwood side (the log is getting wider towards the stump). 

   Someone please review/correct if I am wrong.

1. 
   Lataxe | Nov 15, 2009 02:46pm | #3

   Don,

   I confess that looking at those cathedrals on plank faces tends to confuse my little walnut of a brain, so I always look at the edge of the plank (which may need a plane to reveal the grain clearly) to determine which way the grain at the face is pointing. 

   Of course some planks are naughty and have grain that changes direction between this end and t'other.  Here again, the grain direction on the edges tends to be the best guide as to which direction of feed into the machine is likely to result in the least tear-out. With these naughty planks, very shallow cuts (not to mention very sharp knives) seems to make a big difference to the degree of any tear-out in the unavoidable areas of grain direction-change.

   One day I will sharpen some planer knives to a steep cutting angle, as one would do with a handplane, to see if this would reduce tear out in the really naughty woods such as sapele and iroko, where the grain coils within the ribbons and nearly always tears out in a machine planer.

   Lataxe

1. 
   DonStephan | Nov 15, 2009 07:09pm | #4

   Equally fun has been some mixed quarter and rift sawn cherry for a dining table.  Haven't figured out how it works, but the grain runs in opposite directions along opposite edges of the same face of several of these squirrels.