shellac for preventing bird's eye maple tearout?

Hmm, that's an interesting question; I've never heard of anyone trying that before. I'd almost have to think it would have *some* positive effect. Certainly seems worth running some experiments to see what happens.

That looks like a good idea. May help when running through the thickness planer also. WW

Answer a few questions.

1. How deep do you expect the shellac to penetrate? Most varnishes don't, would shellac, especially in a dense hard wood like maple?
2. If it is simply on the surface like most varnishes, what protection will it provide against tear out if you have to scrape the shellac off to get to the actual board area that needs scraping?

Solutions I have heard about that have been reported to work.

1. Sand the surface vs. scrape or plane.
2. If planing spray a mist of water on the surface just prior to planing to soften the wood, to "help prevent" tear out.

Like the others, I've not heard of this before. I suspect a more dilute concentration might work better than a thicker solution (say,

Is your block plane a low angle? Have you tried a higher angle plane or a higher angle bevel on your block plane blade? A bevel up smooth plane is a handy thing to have in your arsenal.

Very interesting idea. I think you've volunteered to run some tests and see. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd think that if the tearout was only a coat of shellac deep, you don't need the shellac to prevent tearout, but it's certainly cheap and easy enough to test.

The spit coat of shellac suggestion someone else mentioned makes sense, but what I'd really like to see is if you could figure out how to start with the French Polish and end with it, too. ;)

After failing to achieve the desired results with a sharp York pitch L-N No

John

Birdseyes are end grain, so 2 lb or thinner cut should penetrate easily.

LN low angle block, iron set light, mouth almost completely closed. If that tears (and it didn't on unshellacked BE -- yet), go to the scraper. If I do another project in bird's eye, I'll make or buy a scraper plane. A 24" sole scraper would make a nice addition to my tool set.

I've been using heavily diluted Hydrocote sealer to do the same thing. It usually works pretty well. I apply at least 2 coats to the tearout area. I brush on one coat on whole board then check the tearout areas to see if its soaked in (it usually has) then reapply only to the tearout area until it won't take any more (stops absorbing). It looks like a thin puddle on the tearout area, wait about an hour, apply a second coat to the whole board and your done. The thicker the board the longer the wait (dry) time.

Fred, how's Fannie and the rest of the Farkel family faring?

;)

Sparkle says "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..."

Results -- waste of time. Keeping edges **sharp** and set light -- plane taking fluff instead of shavings, light burr on the scraper -- did the job beautifully. Shellac (applied one side) did nothing but make the 3/8" maple curl up like a Frito.