Free tutorial: How to massacre a perfectly good bubinga board

[Bob Jones 5443]

It's times like this that I realize I am more dilettante than hobbyist.

I'm trying to smooth a 7" x 44" bubinga board before routing a shape into it from a template. I thought it would be easier to get it smooth if I have the entire rectangle of the board rather than the thin, snakelike shape of the finished piece.

Step 1: 4-1/2 smoother. Blade must not have been sharp enough. Tearout.

Step 2: 5-1/2 "super-smoother". Same. Worse.

After several puzzled minutes, I thought I'd throw in the towel and use a random orbital sander, but even 80 grit didn't bite in enough to reach the tearout.

I like having a vintage No. 80 cabinet scraper, but I sure don't know how to use it. I used the Hock rod to put a burr on the edge, but when I ran the No. 80 over the board I got jittery gouges almost all up and down the board.

I'm about to toss out my vision of a glasslike surface on this piece. By now the board is well and truly ruined. Well, the side I tried to smooth is; the other side has no tearout.

If you sign up for this "tutorial" (really, it's a joke in case you hadn't realized) you will receive complete step-by-step instructions for how to gradually and reliably gouge up the board. Note: If you are signing up to learn WHY this tearout is happening, that is not included in the tutorial (because I don't understand it).

Oh bother.

[Kevin Jenness]

Bob, there's more to bench planes than a sharp blade. An accurately fitted and very closely set chipbreaker can go a long way towards taming tearout on figured wood, as can a high sharpening angle on a bevel-up plane. A scraper plane can work but needs to be set to a very light cut and have no play in the hinge rod to avoid chatter. To remove the tearout at this point you might consider fastening the board to a flat surface and milling it with a router with a large baseplate running on battens either side of the work, following up with a scraper or sander. That's assuming you don't have a segmented-head planer or drum/widebelt sander available.

[Derek Cohen]

I wish the forum had a like button.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[John C Cox]

Now you understand why I love my 22" wide drum sander.

[Kent A Bathurst]

.......... vision of a glasslike surface on this piece.......the board is well and truly ruined. Well, the side I tried to smooth is; the other side has no tearout.

Slow your roll there, Sparky! "Glass-like finish" and "planes and scrapers" are not required to be in the same project. When you're digging a hole for yourself, first thing to do is throw the shovel away. In this instance, the shovel is all edge tools.

In my world, where I don't try to emulate the Neander Gods, I would get the now "good-er" side sanded to something like 150g with your ROS. Do whatever it is you're doing with the router. Get it to where you're done except for finishing.

Not knowing where you are heading, I'll just take a stab at my version...Dye it or [shudder] stain it, if that's the plan. Followed by a couple light coats of Zinnser aerosol shellac as a seal coat [wiping or brushing will lift the dye/stain]

Scuff sand with 600g
Pad on 3/4# ultra pale dewaxed shellac - to be sure I have good, consistent coverage.

And THEN - Aqua Coat Clear Grain Filler. Read the directions and do what they say. I don't know bubinga, but I do know open-grain woods like red and white oak, and walnut. This stuff does what it says, but it takes me more coats than their marketing people say on the can. It dries water clear, as advertised.

Then seal with dewaxed shellac; scuff sand; do whatever to complete the finishing - oil varnish, waterborne poly, whatever.

I just completed a night stand/cabinet made from air-dried walnut. Just took a notion to fill the grain. "glasslike" Finish is just shelllac. No planes were dulled in the process.

Your goal was "glasslike", not "hand-planed glasslike"

[Tom Trees]

Steepen yer cap iron to at least 50 degrees, no tight mouths, and a camber small enough to enable one to slide the cap iron, no greater distance than 1/64" from the edge.
Straight shavings will be the result, oh and no tearout.
If you don't see this, the cap iron isn't being involved.

If some tearout remains, then either try honing it slightly steeper, or get it closer if you can..without the shavings compressing like a concertina
With thanks to Warren of course..
he hones his much steeper than the minimum of 50 degrees, so doesn't need set so it so close.

All the best
Tom

[John C Cox]

Starting off a hand tool odyssey on figured bubinga is jumping straight into the deep end. That stuff is really hard, really dense, likes to chip, and usually has enough included silica to drive one to distraction.

The hard part here is that there's going to be a lot of sharpening, which consequently means a lot of adjusting planes, which, in turn, provides opportunity for tearout.

Unfortunately, while exceptionally well set planes and scrapers can leave beautifully smooth finishes, they often turn out slightly wavy or scalloped. This is because when set up for finishing, often the edges of the blades were relieved so they didn't dig in or catch and tear. As a result, they cut slightly deeper in the center than the edges.

If these sort of edges dull or are prepped to slightly less than perfection, or if the planes and scrapers aren't well tuned, they will leave lines, chatter, and rough spots.

While I know several woodworkers who are able to finish straight off their planes and scrapers, I have not been able to achieve that level of perfection.