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Planing a piece of Engleman top.
Planing it to downsize it before joining the two pieces . All hand plane
Stanley Bailey NO 5 Good and sharp.
Now...Planing beautifully and on some parts ( same direction) hitting huge parts of grain going almost exactly 180 degrees .
Boy talk about tear out... and my plane is set so fine I could see through the wide shavings till I hit that reverse grain.
My question.... is this grain reversal caused by the proverbial RunOut..
Ronald

Cut from a twisty log, perhaps? I join and cut out the rough guitar shape before thicknessing, and turn it around each pass to go with the runout. Once you figure out where the grain direction change is, you could just do the same. Also, you could try a toothed blade on it to reduce tearout around the grain switch areas. That's pretty much the only way to handle mahogany, with alternating runout every inch or so.

Spruce can have interlocking grain.

Is the reversal caused by the proverbial runout? That's a funny way of putting it. Wood planes better in one direction than the other because it has runout. Interlock is a reversal of the runout direction. It's a reversal in twist as the tree grows.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Plane straight across the piece.
90 degrees to the growth lines.
with the plane at a slight angle so to shear the fibers.

you have some figure in you top .

Mike

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Mike Collins

Is there a good tutorial addressing top thicknessing with a handplane?
The more I work on it the more handmade guitars with good attributes in workmanship and tone don't seem that expensive.

Ronald,
Sounds like runout. You might want to practice thicknessing on some cheap practice tops. Or, just find a local cabinet shop that has a thickness sander and ask if they can thickness it for you. A great DVD on top thicknessing(doesn't cover hand planing though) is the Kent Everett Voicing a Steel String Guitar from Stew Mac. LMI might have it too.

This video from Robert O'Brien should help you out. There are a lot of other videos from him that are very helpful. They can be found on LMI's site also:


On a separate note you mention thicknessing the top before joining. I always join at full thickness, then plane down to about 3.5mm, then install the rosette, level the rosette and clean up the top(rosette side), then thickness from the back side. Then cutout the sound hole. This is the safest way to do the top. Good luck!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

You may also want to try a bevel-up plane. Having a 50 degree bevel in one of these makes the cut akin to a scraping action. Works a treat on figured maple, probably would on spruce too. You can get the same effect by putting a back bevel on a Bailey-style plane iron.

-J.

Instead of pulling out for a low angle bevel up plane, you could invest in the far less expensive Stanley #80 / Record #080 scraper route and enjoy the experience of handling a very versatile piece of kit that's more than capable of removing extremely fine shavings in the trickiest of graining while leaving a polished finish to the surface.

Have you checked the sole of the plane for flatness (at least coplanar at
toe, mouth, and heel) and twist (more likely on a wooden plane)?
Concavity is very common on metal-bodied planes both new and over time.
If the blade is *sharp*, the sole is well-conditioned, and you're taking
a light cut, grain reversal in spruce and the like should only cause
a light surface roughness, nothing like tearout per se.

Very flat , the whole plane was reconditioned
Ronald

Try planing at least 45 degree to the grain or even 90 and 'skew' the plane so it shears or slices the wood as suggested by Mike Collins above and you should be just fine with your nice sharp No5.

Cheers

Kim