planing vs sanding

Re: Chatonyance?Cherry

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>About 15 years ago I displayed a small cherry table at a craft show. A woman whose husband was a fine woodworker came around and commented about what a beautiful piece of wood the top was. She actually said it twice while we were talking. It seemed a little odd at the time because it was really a very ordinary piece of cherry. I later realized she just wasn't used to seeing an unsanded surface.

I've kept quiet until now...

Denis Ch�nard, Orl�ans, Ont.

>...because I didn't know what to make of your results...

I still believe that the FWW article methodology was flawed, but your approach, I find hard to dismiss...

Can you give us more details on how you planed the wood? Plane used, bedding angle, how "fresh" was the sharpening, etc.? I know that you know your planes, I just want to remove the methodology from the equation :)

Maybe it's the wood that causes the "problem", it would be interesting to repeat the experiment with another wood species...

The only other thing that I can think of is that maybe planing against the grain would help the raised grain issue...

In the end I still find it hard to believe that two surfaces that look so different when prepped show little difference when a finish is put on, regardless of refraction and all that jazz...

DC (who hates sanding)

Still...

Bill Houghton, sunny today yahoo in Sebastopol, CA

>having just spent yesterday evening coughing out the dust from a sanding and routing escapade on some frame and panel frames, I'm mightily attracted to the plane as a tool - a lot easier on the lungs!

Re: I've kept quiet until now...

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Denis,

For this piece I used the same plane that I was using to smooth my cherry panels, a LN 62. The blade is O1, and the microbevel is at 37 or 38� (49-50� planing angle). I had previously smoothed 1 or 2 panels with it, maybe 20 or 30 strokes each panel. The blade was still OK (not hard to push as it is when it gets dull, no tearout in either direction, fluffy shavings), but next time I'll use a newly sharpened blade. The grain is a little wavy in places but looking at the direction, the raised grain doesn't seem to be related to it (it's just as rough where the grain clearly rises). As I said I almost never use cherry, and never this batch, so I can't really comment. Next test I'll use maple (the wood I use the most). I have enough experience with maple to think that the results will be the same (without the raised grain) as with the cherry.

Ahhh... There's the problem!

Denis Ch�nard, Orl�ans, Ont.

>You used a Lie-Nielsen plane...

Try with a Veritas, and everything will work better :)

DC

Ducking and running