A silly question perhaps, but others have recommended the experts in this group.
I need to fabricate new totes for several hand planes that were abused before they came into my possession. I'm going to use either ash or maple because that's what I have and in the case of the ash, I can afford to make lots of mistakes because I have a lot of it. I notice that broken totes seem to fracture along the grain line, which is typically parallel to the direction in which force is applied (parallel to the grain rather than perpendicular). Why not fabricate the totes so that the grain is perpendicular to the line of force (also perpendicular to the sole of the plane)? Is there a good reason that's not obvious (at least to me)?