What's it called?

Use a 112 scraper plane. You have twisted grain and there is no way to get going with the grain. You can do it with a card scraper but it is tough. I had a chunk of Cocobolo that was doing the same thing but when I put it through the planer, it came out fine. Go figure!!

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

It’s about the angle of the plane, lower angle is good for softwood, higher angle is good for harder wood. Where the wood grows together, the wood is dense so the low angle of your plane digs into the fiber, adds to that the change of grain direction, makes it even harder. The scraper plane will solve it. But you’ll need one. Try to adjust your plane to the highest angle, or if possible, flip your iron around to produce a higher angle for that area (it will dull the iron quicker), and adjust for removing the thinnest amount possible, hold at 45 degrees to the work and use it as a shearing plane. Clamp a sacrificial piece next to it to prevent tear out and as a support for the overhand of the plane body.

-- Thuan

Although I agree with what been said…

This has worked in the past for me, but only for final passes;Wipe the surface with a damp sponge, take a pass. Seems to soften the fibers just enough so that the plane does not dig in. Do hold you plane at an angle to make more of a shearing cut.

-- Nicky

Forgive me, I should have used the word “skew” in my response above. The thought behind the skew plane or the skew chisel is to reduce friction. A two inch blade would remove 2” width of wood. If you hold the 2” blade at another angles, let’s say for easy math, 45 degrees, then the same 2” blade would only cut 1.4” width of wood. More sharp blade per fiber of wood means less friction for tear out. The shear comes from the way the blade shaves the wood. The leading edge of the blade starts the cut as the trailing ends of the blade follows along like an arrowhead. Now, I don’t have skew plane so I hold my wooden plane at an angle and it does work on those difficult figured woods.

-- Thuan

I understand what you’re talking about Thuan… I’ll try this when I get this stuff again and see what I can make it do. I was trying to plane by holding it off center. I also tried planing at a 45 to the grain.

I’m learning how to use a new #7 plane and I see that I have lots left to learn.

Thanks for the help with this. I’m glad to know that what I had is difficult to work with. I appreciate the tips.

Mark -

I built a small table with Brazilian cherry this summer. I have tried to plane this type of wood…very tough. It has grain reversals everywhere. In the straight grain sections, it almost has bands going diffrerent directions every 1/4 to 3/8”...side by side.

I used a Stanley no.80 cabinet scraper with good results…(the no.4 in the pic below pretty much just sat there after I figured it wasn’t too safe to use! Only used it for very very light shavings to get burn marks out)

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Sometimes sanding is the only way to go. I agree with everyone thus far. I have had success moistening curly or reversing wood with mineral spirits prior to machine jointing and planing, and using a card scraper to remove mill marks. If you do use a RO sander to finish up, be sure to do your final sanding by hand to remove any potential swirl marks. I usually machine sand to 320 grit in these instances, then back off to 220 for the hand sanding, prior to finishing. If you decide to use Mineral Oil for the breadboard finish this shouldn’t be as critical an issue as when applying a film finish. That just has a tendency to amplify any random orbit swirl marks that might occur.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.