If it takes along time to sand out planer tears. Is a scraper a better way to start..?

[Jim Hall]

I have some rotary cut bubinga I want to make a entry table out of . The wood and grain is really beautiful. Never worked with it before so thought I'd make a cutting board out of some of it to check it out. The planer left tears in it. So after sanding for an hour or so was able to get them all out. A couple deeper ones I had to sand out without using a sanding block. In the end it came out ok and I don't mind the sanding. It just took a lot of time. I was wondering if maybe I should buy some scrapers for Christmas that may speed up the process when I get to actually finishing table top itself. Sorry for such a simple question. I've built alot of outdoor projects but just getting into fine woodworking.. Last and only woodshop class was 40 years ago.. I was thinking about getting a scraper set with burnisher and file that Lee Valley sells.. Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks.. Jim

[fredfighter]

bench plane from an antique shop as well. Then if you have bad tear our you would hand-plane, then scrape, then (maybe) sand. Much faster and lots of fun.

[Toller]

What is rotary cut? That normally refers to veneer, but that obviously isn't what you have.

I recently used some pommele bubinga. It planed with no tearout, so I am surprised any bubinga tears. I expect your blades are dull, or you are taking too much off.

[Jim Hall]

I called the wood supplier. You're right rotary cut is veneer. I misunderstood what he was telling me.

Don't have the tear out problem on planer with walnut, mahogany, butternut; fish-tail oak or red oak; but do have when planing bubinga, bird's eye maple, and curly maple. Made a lot of cutting boards with a variety of woods. So was thinking it was more the irregular grain than planer blade. But too inexperienced to really know. I looked up bubinga in the book "World woods in color" and it does mention interlocked and irregular grained bubinga tends to tear or pick up. Even sanding the bubinga with 100 grit would tear the grain in small areas where the grain would fade and be kinda blotchy and seemed to be almost coming up at you (like end grain) rather than running along the board. I sanded sort of cross-grain to avoid further tearing in those spots and then came back with 150 grit with the grain and that seemed to work ok..

[Jim Hall]

[Jim Hall]

I'll try today with another piece and take off less and see if that works. Thanks for advice..

[bent]

if u gt a scraper the tool that you drag across it to tune it is very important. It has to be a steel that can be hardened highly; std. things aren't capable w/ any process. I've tried edges of knife sharpeners and chisels, etc. and I have a scraper in a drawer. I've thought about going to a motor shop for a wrist pin sometime. It seems like something that takes getiing used too. I was aggravated.

Can anyone comment on this. If this does a good job automatically it may be worth the money compared to the knife sharpener style "burnisher" LV sell as well: