# Planing technique?



## Chris Curl (Jan 1, 2013)

Now that I am learning how to use a plane, I am reading more about them, and a term came up that I am not familiar with:

Grain runout

When you encounter this, you should plane the other direction.

Does that refer to the situation where the fibers are not running parallel to the face, and they are running "into the wood" if you will, such that the plane grabs fibers by the end and gets pulled too far into the wood, breaking the fibers of below the face, rather than cutting them?


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## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

That's correct. You always want to plane a board with the grain direction angling up and away from you. After you mess up a couple of boards by planing against the grain, it will become second nature to always check the grain direction before putting steel to wood.


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## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

Chris Curl said:


> Now that I am learning how to use a plane, I am reading more about them, and a term came up that I am not familiar with:
> 
> Grain runout
> 
> ...


Good question.

I think of grain runout as grain which is running into or out of the wood. If you are planing in a direction where it is running out of the wood it will tear less, but may not feel smooth. If you are planing in a direction where it is running into the wood, it may tear.

Some species are more prone to grain runout. Mahogany comes to mind.

This is picture from a replacement sidelight using mahogany. Exact species was not specified. Looks like african, but could be one of several.

The steaks in the bottom part are all grain runout. It looks attractive, but it is a challenge to plane and not get tearout.









If you get tearout, it is good to try planing in another direction, but some pieces will tear on one place in the first direction and another place in another direction.

You may also hear the term "wild grain" which is where the grain is running in more than one direction. Common to see around knots and especially in burls.

I have a piece of ash which has a nice combination of sap and heart grain. No knots, but I lost a lot of thickness due to tearout while power planing for thickness even with very light passes. I still have some tearout in spots. Bummer.


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## WillemJM (Aug 18, 2011)

All good posts in reply to your question. The best way to explain it, is compare the wood fibers to the bristles of a broom. If you stroke your hand over them in while slanting them in the same direction as your hand movement, it will be smooth. If you move your hand in the opposite direction, the bristles will try and stick into your hand. The same applies to wood grain.

There are many examples, especially with figured wood where the grain orientation will be in both directions in various locations on the same board, in close proximity. You can plain against the grain without getting tear-out, by changing blade bevel angles, using a back bevel and in short getting your hand plane closer to behaving similar to a scraper plane.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Chris, I now know I have to address that portion of the text, thanks!

They've already told you about what it is. Was you question "definition" or how to handle difficult figured woods? 

A typical tree trunk is wider at it's base than it is above, correct? So if you take an image of a standing tree and draw straight, parallel lines down from the sides of the trunk to the ground it will leave you with a column of wood and excess wood wedges outside of the box at ground level.

I hope I'm not confusing you, I'm confusing myself as I type! lol

Because annual growth rings are sliced through the resulting column of wood has grain run-out in the downward direction - as the tree stands.

This is what causes grain run-out on an otherwise 'perfect' tree. Regardless of sawing technique, you will have run-out. If you rive the lumber, or split by wedge, there is little run out because the lumber naturally splits with the grain. 

Grain run-out becomes something to note once you get past the Try plane. It will be obvious as you begin to work diagonal to the grain which more responsive to the plane. 

It becomes very important if you are gluing up a table top. - Read this closely if you are going to be an honest to truth hand tooler - always, always, orient run-out in the same direction for panel glue ups. Anyone who tells you it doesn't matter is secretly using a power belt sander. As you work the panel after glue up it is a heap more trouble to work a panel with alternating run-outs.

There are some cases where you have little choice but to adapt - you will have difficult figured woods like mahogany mentioned above, or what Moxon calls "Cross-grain'd Stuff". Just as Moxon recommends, it is often the only option to go across the grain holding the plane askew. Higher bevel angles help. Finish it off with a card scraper.

I also have to agree with Schwarz... Sharp does fix a lot of problems!

Hope that covers all bases.


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## Chris Curl (Jan 1, 2013)

Thanks folks. Those are good things to try to remember.

And thank for your patience with a newcomer like myself. I fear that I may be asking the same questions other newcomers have asked 100 times. If so, please don't hesitate to tell me to do a search.

In other news, I have decided to try making a saw bench this weekend. I currently don't have a good place to cut my wood.


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## Chris Curl (Jan 1, 2013)

firemedic said:


> Chris, I now know I have to address that portion of the text, thanks!
> ...


Heh, I guess it was obvious where I read it! 


firemedic said:


> ...
> Was your question "definition" or how to handle difficult figured woods?
> ...


Well, both I guess. I was trying to plane a piece of pine and it did not go well. Now I know that I was going the wrong direction against the runout.

Knots also cause me problems. I realize that is to be expected when using the cheap whitewood pine I use. Is that another situation where a really sharp blade is the solution?


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Yes, pine knots can be very challenging. Moxon says to plane around them with care. With a heavy iron though it's not too bad. If you are intentionally incorporating large knots into a finished piece like a table top it's a good idea to stabilize them first with thinned epoxy. A couple coats of thinned shellac or lacquer is an option too. The intent is to penetrate and strengthen the area... Just like putting masking tape or veneer tape behind veneer before cut small obtuse angles or details.

Again, sharp iron.

I seem to recall that you replaced the iron in your jack plane with a buck brothers iron from depot. That's not the greatest choice. They are made from poor quality steel. As you become more advanced with your sharpening technique the iron will not follow. It's not possible to home it as keenly as better steel because it is not hard/durable enough. It would be best to return to the original iron or buy a better thicker iron. 

Email me a picture of the original iron if you have concern with it's condition - or post it here. I'm willing to regrind and sharpen it if you drop it in the mail. That would at least give you a starting point but eventually you'll learn. Sharpening is as an important skill to the hand tooler as as any.


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

If anyone is foolish enough to work western red cedar for furniture or carving (like me),
Learn and memorize what firemedic has posted. Best description, I've read yet, FM.
If/when I use a piece of WRC which is sort of post shaped, say 3" x 5" x 24", 
it doesn't take 10 minutes of preliminary hacking and shaving to figure out which way was 'up.'
The direct result is that some shapes simply can't be carved in the "wrong" direction without chunks popping off!


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## Chris Curl (Jan 1, 2013)

firemedic said:


> ...
> Email me a picture of the original iron if you have concern with it's condition - or post it here. I'm willing to regrind and sharpen it if you drop it in the mail. That would at least give you a starting point but eventually you'll learn. Sharpening is as an important skill to the hand tooler as as any.


I will post it here. It had a pretty big ding in it, and I ground it out and am working on making it square. Of course, the bevel is now wrong I'm sure and it is still not square and true. I would like to try to fix that myself if I can; if I fail in that effort, I will raise the white flag and send it.

Thanks Fire.


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