How to work out grain direction

[woodbloke]

Many people look only at the coloured graphic lines on the surface or edge, but these do not always match the fibre direction.

They are actually useless - if you consider a book-matched pair, they have identical surface patterns, but opposite grain direction.

BugBear

I was going to say that the other evening but it was late at night and I'd had a couple of glasses of vino collapso so I couldn't remember whether the grain reversed on not ...so I said nowt, which was probably wise :lol: - Rob

 

[fobos8]

Read the links to some previous posts which were extremely usefull.

There was an artice from Fine Woodworking which mentions looking at end grain seeing if it is a hill or valley and then eithing planing with or against the cathederals.

I tried this method out today and scraps lying around and it was spot on each time.

However.......

This method is great for grain direction for the wide faces of timber but what about the narrow edges. Is there a "method" for these two sides?

Regards, Andrew