Grain tearing when planing

Are you working against grain? Is the wood a bit green?

Wes

From other comments received, it appears that "grain reversal" may be the problem. I'll have to try swapping the plane direction. The boards are dry AFAIK (prepacked from local BORG).

This question triggered a memory of something I haven't thought of for a long time: I took a community college woodworking course about 20 years ago and they had a very large thickness planer that had helical blades. I've never seen one before or since. I wonder if they cut with less tearing.

To stop "grain tearing", order the Brian Burns Double Bevel Sharpening System booklet. He details how to sharpen a planer and jointer (along with ckisels and planes) for incredibly smooth cuts with little to no tear-out on curly maple. I have the book. very good.

-Rick Buchanan

Grizzly sells spiral jointers and planers, but they're made with a zillion square carbide cutters, not an actual single spiral blade, so they still don't shear cut.

=>This question triggered a memory of =>something I haven't thought of for a long =>time: I took a community college =>woodworking course about 20 years ago =>and they had a very large thickness =>planer that had helical blades. I've never =>seen one before or since. I wonder if they =>cut with less tearing.