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Old 11-21-2018, 04:57 PM
ruby50 ruby50 is offline
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Default working curly maple

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I will be making a Krenov-style cabinet for my daughter’s wedding gift - so you know it has to be pretty good. She owns her own guitar repair shop (brooklynlutherie.com) and loves 20’s and 30’s instruments. Many of these were built with “fiddleback” curly maple and I will make the carcass out of it. The back will be spruce with a sunburst so you see it when you open the doors.

So I am going to attempt a coopered door in curly maple. This would be no problem to get the outside and inside radiuses correct if the wood were straight grained, but I am worried about the curly maple grain giving me hell. Does anyone have any tips for planing and scraping this wood? I know my tools need to be “sharp”.

Thanks

Ed
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Old 11-21-2018, 05:04 PM
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srick srick is offline
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Ed, as I remember from the Krenov books: very sharp shallow planes and scrapers. Good luck with that. You might want to create a “scrap piece” {ie. cutoff) to practice on. Of course, you could always sand and then finish with plane and scraper. No matter what you do, she’ll love it!

Best,

Rick
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Old 11-21-2018, 06:34 PM
Trevor Gore Trevor Gore is offline
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I usually work figured woods with high angle planes...
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Old 11-21-2018, 06:50 PM
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srick srick is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor Gore View Post
I usually work figured woods with high angle planes...
Interesting Trevor. I have used the shallow planes, but the trick, IMO, is to be very sensitive to resistance and grain - I find myself constantly turning them to attack from different directions. I would think that the high angle planes would have more of a scraping action, the shallow plane, a slicing action.

Regardless, I have always used a scrap piece to get an idea of what I was up against and to figure out the best ways of planing the wood. Each board of course, being different.
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Last edited by srick; 11-21-2018 at 07:00 PM.
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Old 11-21-2018, 06:50 PM
charles Tauber charles Tauber is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by srick View Post
very sharp shallow planes...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor Gore View Post
I usually work figured woods with high angle planes...
I've been successful with both. Use planes with adjustable throats, if you can, and close the throat down to near zero.
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Old 11-21-2018, 07:08 PM
LouieAtienza LouieAtienza is offline
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I would work the planes at a bias to the grain in a bit of a shaving motion. Though, depending on the number of staves you have, it may be easier to work the edges down with rasps before scraping. For the inside you could use a wide shallow gouge to get the most of it before moving onto scrapers. I usually do not turn a burr when scraping curly maple, rather I would just true the scraper edge with a file then hone it with a stone...
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Old 11-22-2018, 06:36 AM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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Using toothed blades in your planes makes them almost impervious to tear-out or grain direction, but you do then have to scrape or sand away the tooth pattern. Learning how to really sharpen and turn the hook on a scraper, and doing it often, was a real stepping stone for me.
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Old 11-22-2018, 11:13 AM
ruby50 ruby50 is offline
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Great information from all.

AS usual, the answer is "depends", with the only common thread being "sharp". The interior will be more difficult than the exterior because of the concavity. Here is the assortment of tools that I have that I will try:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby16...posted-public/

Upper left is a flea market cherry smoother that I radiused front-to-back and side-to-side for chair seats - it has a nice double iron. Upper right is a travisher, a curved spokeshave that is good for hollowing, and I have used it on some knotty wood with good success. Bottom right is another fleamarket find, a thick scraper blade that was already radiused on the right side, too thick to bend. It is a Stanley made for the 12-series of scraper planes, I think, and they are sharpened with a 45° angle on the cutting edge. I have used it with and without a hook with success. Bottom left is a Stanley 20° block plane with a blade sharpened at 45° for a 65° cutting angle. I have used it for chamfering edges with success.

Of course there is always electrickery. I could hang a router from a pivot and do the interior arc much like the fretboard radiusing jigs I have seen.

Thanks all for the input. I recently bought a used thickness sander and look forward to giving it a workout on this piece.

Ed
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Old 11-22-2018, 01:07 PM
Quickstep192 Quickstep192 is offline
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I sure hope you’ll be posting some picture as your project progressses.
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Old 11-22-2018, 02:29 PM
Frank Ford Frank Ford is offline
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You might want to investigate what Brian Burns calls " double bevel sharpening."

Here's a shot of him planing curly maple with no tearout:




He has a text available as well as a honing guide kit:

http://lessonsinlutherie.com/doublebevelsharpening.html
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Old 11-22-2018, 04:56 PM
charles Tauber charles Tauber is offline
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I don't want to detract from Mr. Burns' method, but it isn't difficult to plane figured maple without tear-out. A sharp blade, a well set-up plane and a zero throat will do that easily. There are many methods for obtaining those, including those that don't require special sharpening techniques and jigs.
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Old 11-23-2018, 06:43 AM
ruby50 ruby50 is offline
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Frank

Thanks for reference to the Brian Burns method. A friend did his own version of that "box" perhaps 15 years ago but it now sits unused. My experience is that different parts of a figured board need different approaches, and I am looking to refine that to just one approach for a whole board. I guess a small burr sharp scraper would do that, but I need to remove more material in some areas than I would have patience for with just that scraper.

Thanks all, I have a way forward

Ed
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