Planing Paulownia

Scraper?

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>Maybe a scraper? How about planing on a skew angle?

Re: Scraper?

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Hi Jim

Unfortunately, although classified as hardwood, it acts more like a softwood ... a very soft wood. It is not possible to scrape wood such at this. It will crumble. As it is, when planing, along with the shavings is a fair amount of dust. And this from freshly sharpened blades!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Can't help, but nice drivebys there, Derek

Bill Houghton, garage sales in Sebastopol, CA

>

A great trick I learned

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Derek,

For wood like this I find it sometimes helps to glue some sandpaper, grit side down, to the sole of the plane. The blade should be well-sharpened but retracted a little. Plane with quick back-and-forth motions, and when the sandpaper gets worn out just change it and resharpen the blade while you're at it.

Re: Planing Paulownia

Andrew F in Australia

>Try damping the grain with a sponge before planing, Derek.

This usually works, but introduces problems with rust.

Cheers,

Andrew

Re: Planing Paulownia

Dave Thompson

>I've heard of this technique done with mineral spirits. This would solve the rust issue, though wiping the tool down afterwards would do it too. I haven't tried this technique myself.

Re: Planing Paulownia

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Have you tried a very low angle plane, preferably Japanese? Paulownia is the wood they use for making chisel and plane boxes, fantastic strength per pound and it must soak up humidity like a sponge. So they've figured out ways to work it.

I'm trying to grow one in the front yard, planning on a harvest in 20 years.

Pam

machine planing

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>I am wondering if you used a planer on this material before using the hand plane. Sometimes with delicate woods the machine damages it far below the surface. From your posts and pictures it is unclear whether you are getting classic tearout or just poor surface quality.

Growing Paulownia

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>I'm trying to grow one in the front yard, planning on a harvest in 20 years.

Pam

I wish you could see the very large grin on my face :)

We removed the Pawlonia because it was HUGE. It had taken over the rear garden, spread about 40 feet in diameter and was about three stories high. The trunk was about a 3 feet in diameter. And it did all this in 7 years!

Killing it was very hard. It grew roots around the garden and popped up in new places. After the tree was cut down it continued to grow (until we literally poisoned the remaining roots). Three months after I had sawn the trunk into blocks, some of these began to sprout!!

The reason it is being harvested it that it grows so easily. But many now consider it a weed.

With regard the low cutting angle, I did try this (hence the picture of my Stanley #62). It is just the surface quality that remains poor.

Regards from Perth

Derek

That seems like an alien species...  *LINK*

Dave Thompson

>




More pictures and info

Re: machine planing

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Hi Warren

My first time at going from tree to finished item.

This piece was first cut on the bandsaw, then roughly flattened with a scrub place before running it through a thickness-planer. I don't own a jointer. I have taken an earlier board from trunk section to dimensioned board with only hand tools.

Both are exactly the same to plane - that is, they leave a matt surface rather than a polished one after a handplane. I am not getting "tearout", just a mix of cottonwool shavings and dust.

I have been wondering whether the wood is not dry enough. I do not have a moisture meter. However it feels very dry and has been very stable.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: That seems like an alien species... *LINK*

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>The trees I bought from your linked seller were no good, died immediately. I can recommend the vendor below, very careful about timing and the state of the seedling and weather.

Pam


A better vendor

Re: Growing Paulownia

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Wow, 7 years, maybe I can harvest it while I can still do woodworking. :)

Seriously, I didn't know about the roots, etc., thanks for telling me. Maybe I should sink some barriers, which won't be all that hard to do when we build the water feature next year. OTOH, might be a good idea to let it go to replace one of the oaks that seems to be suffering from wilt.

Pam

Re: Growing Paulownia

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Oh, yeah, on the low angle, if you have access to a 33-38� bedded Japanese plane please give it a try. That's the angle my crib sheet recommends for kiri/paulownia.

Pam

Paulownia

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>We often see messages about the difficulty of planing dense woods, but the softer woods can be challenging as well. One thing that sometimes happens is that little pieces of wood fiber can accumulate on the very edge of the iron, causing the plane to crush the wood where these fibers block the cutting action, so check the blade. High angles will often not cut cleanly either as a scraping action dents the wood rather than cutting cleanly. Insufficient clearence angle can also cause problems. I would try a cutting angle in the 40 to 45 degree range with a very sharp iron and good clearence. Perhaps you've already done this.

Paulownia has become naturalized here in Eastern United States, but the demand for the wood is high and nearly all is sent to Asia.

Re: Growing Paulownia

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>You know what, why not take one of those HNT blades and chop a low bedding angle for it, use it bevel down? I'm sure you have some ironwood hanging about. If you decide to do this and don't know the method (blade placement, coplanar areas of the sole, etc.), just yell.

Pam

Planing Paulownia � have you tried the Marcou?

Ian (in Sydney, Australia)

>Derek

Your description of dust suggests to me that the fibers are being crushed rather than cut.

have you tried a paring chisel to see if it cuts cleanly with a cutting angle around 25� (assuming your chisel is sharpened at this angle)

when you used the scrub, did the shaving look as though it was cleanly cut?

I'm wondering if the problem might be atempting to take too fine a shaving.

Thinking about the cutting action of those Japanese planes I've seen in use, they have a relatively low cutting angle, the user takes a relatively thick shaving and works on the pull stroke (which might, compared to a western plane, put more pressure in front of the iron)

Ian