Planing Sapele

[Sir Percy]

Hey,
I've just been planing some Sapele boards; fine when planing the edge, but when putting a very shallow bevel on the face of a board with noticeable 'bands', it appears to open up the grain.
What am I doing wrong?
Cheers,
Percy

 

[mouppe]

Sapele has "bands" of reversing grain. Try planing that section the other way or scraping it.

 

[custard]

You're not doing anything wrong, sapele is often a really difficult timber to work because of the "ribbon grain", which as Mouppe said flips direction. A higher pitched plane might work, or google "back bevel", by and large I can usually handle sapele with a 55 degree attack angle (so a 10 degree back bevel on a regular plane), but sometimes there's no alternative to scraping or sanding.

Not my favourite wood, good luck!

 

[Graham Orm]

Scraper is the answer.

 

[Stormer1940]

Sapele has "bands" of reversing grain. Try planing that section the other way or scraping it.

Totally agree with these suggestions. I'd be more inclined to go towards scraping though.

 

[Sir Percy]

Good God. Reversing grain?!!
It's my first project. Oh well, another lesson learnt. And another tool to buy - although this one'll be cheaper than the plane.

Is this something to watch out for with any wood that appears 'banded'?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Try cross planing or planing at 45 degrees with an extremely sharp plane, then scraping or/and sanding it.

 

[custard]

Is this something to watch out for with any wood that appears 'banded'?

Yes, you sometimes encounter ribbon grain with Mahogany, but Sapele is notorious for it, it's usually present as opposed to occasionally present. And in a moment's inattention you can quickly end up with tear out that's a full millimetre deep, scraping away a depression as deep as that will take literally hundreds of strokes, a prospect which would have me reaching for the belt sander!

Any timber with a "ripple" to the grain, like maple or sycamore, can also be problematic. If you're a beginner search out the straightest most boring grain you can find, interesting figure usually comes with a price in terms of difficulty of working. There are solutions to all these problems but they're generally not as quick and easy as you'd hope. I keep high pitched planes, a selection of scraping planes, and have special knives for my planer/thicknesser with back bevels, all dedicated to contrary grain; but you don't want to be burdened with all that stuff too early in your woodworking career. Learn the craft on wood that's sweet tempered if a little dull!

Good luck!

 

[RobinBHM]

Some tropical timbers like sapele have striped figuring caused by a spiral growth pattern. When you look down a board, the darker stripes are the ends of the fibres facing up towards you, like looking at a striped lawn where the blades of grass which are bent over towards you look darker. The blade of a hand plane will always want to chip out these darker stripes as it is trying to dig into the ends of the fibres. Planing at 45 degrees, scraper or belt sander are ways to minimise the problem.

 

[Sir Percy]

Thanks all.
By planing at 45 degrees, I'm assuming that refers to the pitch of the blade, and not skewing the plane.
custard, you're spot on - I only have a bench plane and a block plane right now, so will finish this one off with a scraper.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

No - skewing the plane.

 

[Sir Percy]

Ah, right.