smoothing the top of a mahogany table

[richnfamous]

I picked up a mahogany table for next to nothing at a car booty. I think it was an 'apprentice' project as the top was far from flat - rather wavy. got it sorted with a scraper plane as the backwards-forwards grain made using a smoothing plane a little tricky

 

[woodhutt]

Recently had the same problem with an Indo Mahogany table. Not enough attention/allowance had been paid to wood movement. Took a lot of work with a cabinet scraper but the results were worth it.
Like to see a pic when you've finished.
Pete

 

[richnfamous]

will do... there's a small but awkward crack in one end of the top which I'm thinking about remedying

btw: this would have taken days with a scraper alone. the top was quite 'wavy' and needed about 0.25mm taking off here and there

 

[recipio]

Also called ' Roey ' grain it is caused by alternating cycles of spiral growth in the tree. Iroko is notorious for this. I think I would treat myself to a router flattening jig for that.

 

[Ttrees]

This thread seems sort of a ruse!
but I'll bite regardless as I see the no.80 being used in favour of what I guess to have been a double iron smoother.

So glad I learned how a cap iron should work, as per the very few folks who actually use it, that is...
and never had to use that torture device since.

Still baffles me why folks willingly break any of the three rules of using the cap iron.
Basically, If you can't get shavings to straighten, then your still deep in the woods how a Bailey style plane should perform.
And by that I don't mean Cosman's shenanigans, if that's what some might be thinking...
as that no guarantee for eliminating tearout.

But I guess perhaps this thread wasn't meant to be for discussion, and simply just show and tell of hard work using the no.80.

All the best
Tom

 

[richnfamous]

believe me, the grain on this was a nightmare. I know how to fettle, tune and use a plane, btw. the no 80 isn't hard to use if you've got the iron set up and in this case it was the tool for the job

 

[Ttrees]

believe me, the grain on this was a nightmare. I know how to fettle, tune and use a plane, btw. the no 80 isn't hard to use if you've got the iron set up and in this case it was the tool for the job

You're fooling yourself if you think so.
Clearly one of the three rules of using the cap iron have been broken.

Cap iron needs to be honed at least 50 degrees, no tight mouths, and no rounded corners of the iron.
That's it, even that Katz Mozes guy understands this already!

Not sure why so many folks ignore those rules and think they can do their own thing?
You'll thank yourself for it, if you've not used that no.80 enough,
or you can pretend that using a fettled cap iron to completely eliminate tearout doesn't work instead.

You could try and prove your plane was infact setup, but the tell tale sign of absent straight shavings, would be the give away.

All the best


Tom

 

[thetyreman]

I've found that higher angle planes can be useful for this kind of wood, often if it's not working with a regular plane I'll get the 55 degree krenov smoother out, works a treat and haven't had an instance yet where it couldn't handle a piece of difficult wood.

 

[TRITON]

This is where the likes of a drum sander excels.

Spend £1k to do a single top. Seems a legit purchase to me.