how do you determine grain direction?

Best clues to planing face I think is to sight along the edge and see which way the fibres are angled....usually can pick where its going to tear before trying with most timbers.....either with, against, or don't know(cheeky looking fibres that look parallel to face but who knows).......so sometimes it reverses such that you have to plane in different directions......so, I sight, mark the face where it changes so you can rise out of a pass just before you hit the reverse.....etc..........then hit the reversing parts with scraper of sorts.......scraping plane probably best, though I usually just use a card.........or make it simple and just use the scraping plane from the start.........??????????.....still , unless your timbers obviously of quality, theres a degree of trial and error to it ,, I reakon.

I also look at the end and plane uphill and use a combination of figure/growth rings. As woodborer said every now and then it doesn't work, then you turn in the opposite direction and presto! Who am I to argue with wood? ;)

I found that certain hardwoods are a little schizophrenic in terms of grain and I tend to use the Mujis on these, if still not a getting anywhere and a scraper doesn't help I just give up and put it through the thicknesser and then sand it like theres no tomorrow :o

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Originally Posted by routermaniac

........and a scraper doesn't help I just give up and put it through the thicknesser and then sand it like theres no tomorrow :o

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yehh.....I know what you mean :rolleyes:

We-e-e-llll. I have a bit of a look at the side of the workpiece. If the grain is running uphill in any obvious direction, that's where I points me plane!

However, since I'm mostly using jarrah and the Spirit of the Jarrah is a wayward and tricky beastie, this doesn't always work. Soooo, as soon as it becomes apparent that a stuff-up has manifested itself, I turn the workpiece around and have a go in the other direction.

When, as often as not, this proves to be equally problematic (ie: Bloody Hell! :mad: ), the scraper comes out and the old barbecued thumb scenario is on the agenda.

Sometime around about now*, my dear wife is inclined to make an appearance and ask: "Why are you using all that bad language?"

Woodworking's good, innit? :D

Col

* By this time, I have customarily tried every single plane I possess and they are arranged in random order all over the bench, shelves, assembly table, Workmate and any other available space.

I've read all these confangled ways to read the grain and it all seems like a hell of a lot of bullsh to me. Feel it - if it's running in a predominant direction you can feel it. It its curly you won't and then use the smoother with the finest sharpest/finest shave you can get and work out from there where you need to go :confused:

Jamie

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Originally Posted by barnsey

....and it all seems like a hell of a lot of bullsh to me.
Jamie

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Like it......don't hold back mate..... :D

Let's go back to basics: the fibres in wood are formed in concentric cylindrical layers and run parallel to the axes of these layers. In order to avoid tearout, we need to plane in the direction where the wood fibres make an acute angle with the surface that we are planing. In the diagram below, the appearance of the grain on the top surface is virtually identical. But the key to which way to plane is the end-grain. In the board on the right, the growth rings are basin shaped, or, in geological terms, synclinal, on the end grain, so the wood fibres are sloping upwards towards the right-hand end, and the planing direction is from left to right.

In the left-hand board, the growth rings are arched, or anticlinal, on the end grain, so the wood fibres slope upwards towards the left-hand end, and the planing direction is from right to left.

The planing direction on the edge of the board is trickier to determine, but when you see the growth rings forming a triangle on the top surface, edge, and end grain, as they do on the left-hand board, you plane towards the apex of the triangle.

Rocker

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Originally Posted by Rocker

Let's go back to basics:

The planing direction on the edge of the board is trickier to determine, but when you see the growth rings forming a triangle on the top surface, edge, and end grain, as they do on the left-hand board, you plane towards the apex of the triangle.
Rocker

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I think your right......but how often do you come accross timber like this in practise........rarely for me at least.......unless your willing to pay $10 + per mitre for it.......It comes in so many different ways.......

Agree with apricotripper, at least with the crappy wood I come across (read recycled everything :o ), things just aint that simple ;)

When running lots of timber through a thicknesser you often don't have a lot of time to judge the best way for it to go through. I would just have a quick look at the way the fibres were laying on the timber.

It all depends on the type of timber as well. 75% of the time I would get it right with straight grained timber but with curly grained timber then the success rate was very low.

Daniel

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Originally Posted by apricotripper

I think your right......but how often do you come accross timber like this in practise........rarely for me at least.......unless your willing to pay $10 + per mitre for it.......It comes in so many different ways.......

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Apricotripper,

As you say, my description of grain direction was an over-simplification, and is more applicable to straight-grained softwoods; in many Australian hardwoods the wood fibres do not grow straight up the bole of the tree; in many cases they spiral up it, and are sometimes wavy, giving curly texture, or interlocked. In these cases, there is no 'right ' direction for planing, and the only way to attempt to avoid tear-out - if that is possible at all - is to increase the angle between the plane's blade and the wood surface.

Rocker

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Originally Posted by Rocker

Apricotripper,

In these cases, there is no 'right ' direction for planing, and the only way to attempt to avoid tear-out - if that is possible at all - is to increase the angle between the plane's blade and the wood surface.

Rocker

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Rocker my enlightened friend, that was very astute. are you succumbing to the power of the sith?

Read a hint somewhere about wiping a smooth surface with a tissue, apparently small tufts of tissue will catch on grain whiskers when you are wiping against the grain.

Could be worth a try.


Cheers...............Sean, tissue, bless you :)

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Originally Posted by scooter

Read a hint somewhere about wiping a smooth surface with a tissue, apparently small tufts of tissue will catch on grain whiskers when you are wiping against the grain.

:)

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Makes sense.....I like it.......could be helpful when you just want to make just a couple of final finishing passes on timber and its already too smooth to pick up the direction by touch......that happens to me sometimes after glue up when I notice something that I missed earlier but all the markings I've made have been removed so I've forgotten which way the grains going.......now all I gotta do is remember it .at the right time :rolleyes: