Planing oak – does this look right?
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- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 7 months ago by andyingermany.
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Hi all,
Today I started working on a dovetail box made from oak. No issues cutting the pieces to size, but now that I tried planing the surfaces of the pieces I think there might be something wrong.
Until today I only used pine; this is my first time using oak. The surfaces don’t look smooth to me after I’ve planed them. They feel smooth, but they don’t look smooth. There’s lots of shallow grooves and there are spots that show up a lot lighter and look a lot smoother.
I tried planing in both directions but the outcome looks pretty much the same. When I plan around the lighter, smoother areas they don’t really get bigger. They seem to move. Quite frustrating.
The pieces are fairly thin (9mm or so) and I’m using a Record #4 smoothing plane. The blade is sharp (cuts through paper like butter) and the plane is well set.
Could you take a look at these pictures and tell me if planed oak is supposed to look like this? If it’s not supposed to look like this, any ideas what I may be doing wrong?
Thanks.
Regards,
WesleyAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.[quote quote=118606]Wesley, I believe that’s reversing grain Of some sort. I have found taking a card scraper and scrap those spots in the opposite direction that you planed them. You don’t have to scrap too much.[/quote]
Thanks Dave. Looks like a card scraper will be my next purchase. Silvy question: are the lighter spots the reversing grain or the other way around?
27 September 2014 at 9:16 pm #118610Its the cut of the wood. You need to scrape it use a fine bur. You may still have some of the white spots that is side of the mulrays ii belive.
FrankjI don’t know the technical reasons for this other than I see this quite a lot in both cherry and walnut. I think it’s just due to how the wood grew, may a branch nearby or stresses in the wood. When you plane with the grain every thing planes smooth but these little ares have wood that’s a bit different and you end up with that little bit that looks off. I could be totally wrong for my assumptions tho. Maybe Paul or someone with more experience could chime in.
Card scrapers are very important tools to have, get several. They save a lot of sandpaper expenses.
Frank’s reply reminded me of the sofa table build. In the first episode Paul talks about quarter sawn wood and de medullary it produces.
From wikipedia:
In addition to the grain, quartersawn wood (particularly oak) will also often display a pattern of medullary rays, seen as subtle wavy ribbon-like patterns across the straight grain.
An image search in Google indeed shows very markings on oak ().
Apparently this is highly desirable. I will still try the card scraper.
Thanks Frank, Dave.
Wesley
28 September 2014 at 11:10 am #118620I’ve seen similar on a project someone did at college: as you say the wood feels smooth even if it doesn’t look smooth. The wood was planed in a machine (of course…) and they got a high grade for it.
I was taught the reason for these colours but I forgot completely in all the information I had to absorb about chipboard last year. I’ll look it up.
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