Reply To: end grain groove on table top edge.
It may still be a problem. At the very least, when you get down to depth, you can still break off the fibers at that final depth. But, also at the very start, making your first passes, since this is end grain, not just cross grain, and the fibers are standing right on end, when you come across and break out the fibers, it may make a ragged edge in the vertical walls of the groove you plowed in the long grain because the fibers being broken pull out their brothers that they are stuck to. Sort of hard to explain. Whether you do long grain first or not, I’d suggest using a chisel to work the last bit of the groove so that the plow blade will never touch the final corner. You just need a tiny bit. It only takes a second to do. A file is probably fine, too.
This is a good reason for experimenting with scrap. 🙂
I’m sort of hoping that someone else has a magic way of doing this that is simpler.
Which reminds me….once you get below the surface, you may not need the saw kerfs. That’s a good thing to explore. You may only need to get, say, 1/16 to 1/8″ below the surface and then can just run the plow down to depth. Like I said, it has been too long since I did one of these. I don’t remember, and I think it depends upon how cranky the grain is.
i fully understand what to mean, for this reason i was expecting to plow ‘from both side’. it would need to have parralelality between faces to ensure results but i was applying the same concept as planning end grain : come from both side, don’t go over the edge from one side to the other.
I also expect that the end grain face of the wood would not be too visible inside the groove once made. so any discrepencies made visible by the planing direction overlap should be quite negligeable. Paul would most certainly says this is mostly wisfull thinking 😀
Paul’s keepsake box shows a tenique he used to cut an end grain groove.
Thank you so much for this insigth, i ll have a look at it again, that could be a decent training and a new jewel box for the wifey in the mean time 😀
