Bill Tindall
Summary for those uninterested in the details- the ability to plane surfaces with grain reversals is unnecessary to build most anything so many will not make much effort to learn this skill, or maybe even know it can be done, to what ever extent it can be done.

Like most of the woodworkers I personally know, I am focused on building stuff for myself or family. Early in my building career I tried planing something and was unsuccessful and never touched a plane again for 20 years or more. I found ways around this and other deficiencies, and still do. Things were sawed or sanded to size and assembled. And I built lots of stuff, around 100 pieces of furniture and counting.

As my projects became more complex I discovered(during my first visit to a professional run shop) that planing to fit was advantageous which led to the discovery that properly sharpening a plane made it useful for my fitting tasks. Then I tried preparing surfaces by hand planing and found that the risk of unexpected tear -out made surface preparation unreliable in my hands. By carefully selecting wood, tear-out issues during fitting operations was made tolerable. Sanded surfaces were equivalent to planed ones for my finishing schedules so there was zero motivation to devote any effort to better planing, either through expensive equipment purchases or improved technique.

I see lots of torn grain on regional antiques made from walnut and cherry. Nobody I knew, or know, personally could demonstrate planing proficiency on surfaces with grain reversal. I was not convinced tear-out could be reliably prevented. I remain unaware of what can be done by an experience planer because I have never personally seen anyone successfully plane anything with grain reversal except Mr. Kees.

My situation boils down to the fact that I don't know what can be done so I don't know now far away from proficiency I am at. I am as good as the peers I have contact with so it is easy to become convinced that planing lumber with grain reversals is impossible. All you folks that plane and never post any pictures never provided an example of a higher bar for achievement. Whatever planing skills I lack are not hampering my making stuff. There are lots of skills I lack that are hampering making stuff- line and berry inlay for my next piece for example.

It comes down to allocation of time. If learning about planing is made difficult, involves expensive equipment, or if the skill is difficult to master or takes lots of time to master as Warren suggests, screw it. I have more important things to learn. Planing is not standing in the way of anything I need to do. I don't climb mountains because they are there (and difficult).......unless I find I need to for some practical reason.

However, if planing something with grain reversal is as easy as Kees made it I'm going to try it when the need comes up. If I have success I will try something more difficult and the process of grater planing proficiency will continue.

The challenge to my learning woodworking skills is to see some measure of what can be done. I simply don't have local access to highly skilled professionals to see what can be done. Once I encountered a properly fit drawer I was soon making well fit drawers. But, until I saw a well fit drawer I was as clueless as someone telling me to "set the cap iron close".