Hackberry
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My current project is a shaker style end table that I am making out of hackberry. The hackberry wood I am using has a lot of interlocking grain that is getting major tear out as I am working on dimensioning the lumber. But, to me, the grain pattern is beautiful to look at so it it’s worth the trouble, so far. And the price was right too. My question it’s, would it be worth getting a toothing plane to help reduce the tear out while hogging of material, or should I just work the would as in the videos and work the tear ours with a scraper plane like the Stanley 80?
Here it’s a picture of the wood I am working with.
Hi Dan, Never used Hackberry but my approach on squirrely wood is to get it close to the dimension you want with hand planes or a surface planer then try a scraper plane. But that dosen’t always work.
If it dosen’t, I will start with 8o grit sandpaper to get it down to where all the tear out is gone. Then work my way up: 120, 180, 220 and finally 400.
If you can, cut you board to approximately the sizes you need. With some creative layout, you may be able to eliminate some bad patches.
Lot of work but it is worth it….
Located in Honeoye Falls NY USA. The Finger Lakes region of Western NY.
"If you give me 6 hours to fell a tree, I will take the first 4 to sharpen my axe" Abe Lincoln
Some things you could check:
1. Blade is super sharp
2. Plane sole is oiled (I made a 3-in-1 oil bean-can like Paul uses)
3. Blade is super sharp
4. Adjust the frog so that there is less gap between blade and sole.
5. Sides/Corners of plane blade are rounded
6. plane it at a slight angle
7. Blade is super sharpNever heard of Hackberry so – that all I got – good luck!
Robin –> @dborn
Robin ... Richmond, Virginia, USA
Here a link I found that might help for planeing hackberry wood. It mentions hackberry
http://www.woodworking.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-17899.html
“Mat, Just finished doing some Hackberry Panels. The wax (parafin) really makes a difference.”
“Mat, Another thing you could do is move the frog forward to close up the mouth on the smoother…. Take out the blade and you will see two screws on the bit that the blade rests on loosen these … sometimes there is a screw adjuster under the thumb wheel …tighten this up and then retighten the frog screws. If there is no adjuster move the frog forward manually making sure you get it close to parallel with the mouth opening.
I have heard of wiping the sole with a candle..which I do..thats paraffin wax ..never used straight paraffin. The alternative is to wax with Butchers or Johnsons…i.e. the same stuff you use on the tablesaw…no silicon.
Wild grain wood is not easy to deal with but it shouldn’t affect the joint between two boards. When it comes to the face surfaces low angle block plane with the mouth open just a hair will take out the worst..followed by a good scraping.
Hope this helps.”Robin >>>–> @dborn
Robin ... Richmond, Virginia, USA
You can also change the bevel on iron to say 35 deg or put a back bevel on iron using David Chalesworths ruler trick. This changes the rate of attack. oh and like Robin said super sharp.
Dagenham, Essex, England
Robin, thanks for the link! I didn’t find that when I searching the ween about hackberry. And I figure when all else falls I’ll sand it in stages.
Here is a picture of what I got so far.. The table top and drawer. Most of the tear out has been worked out, albeit the drawere is slightly thinner than what i wanted.. Wanted 3/4 material, got 5/8 material on the drawer.
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