planing figure

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
I bought some ash today for planned large plaque. One end has a lot of figuring, very pretty. But when I ran this through the planer.....wadda mess. The figuring tore out and left craters like moon rock. Didn't matter which direction I ran it through, crater city. Is this to be expected with highly figured wood and a planer.
 
Frank,

In Japan we have Japanese ash, called tamo. When it is highly figured it often has a peanut shell pattern in the grain structure. One general rule with this wood is don't run it through the planer unless your blades are very sharp and you take very light cuts. And even then you are likely to get tearout. If possible run it through a drum sander.
 
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Thought I read somewhere if you dampen the wood before running it through the planer, it would help alleviate some of the tearing and ripping.
Maybe someone else can comment on this.
 
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