Difficulty planing & working hickory

[TheFatBaron]

I have a 10" x 10" block of hickory I'm trying to square up. Right now, it's got a pretty pronounced cup. The problem is... my hand planes won't make a dent in it. I have a jack plane and a block plane which basically bounce off it. I've worked pieces of hickory off this same board before and it's definitely tough wood, but I don't remember it being this bad. I've got a couple hand planes which work perfectly fine on jatoba, which you'd think would work fine on this. But nope - nothing. Either the plane skips over the top and doesn't cut because the iron's not out far enough, or it catches and jambs. I've tried changing direction, and going across the grain, but I think I'm officially stuck.

 

I have access to power tools that can accomplish these tasks, but I'd rather not have to pay for a shop day if I don't have to just to get this one damn piece done.

 

So. Any ideas on making my life easier with hickory?

 

Edit: I said parallel to the grain. I meant "across." Way to type the exact opposite of what I meant.

[TRBaker]

Baron, I dearly love hickory.....as long as it's something that someone else has made. I have an upcharge for any hickory job that I get, simply for the additional costs involved with the machining. I use power tools and I know from the past that a hickory job of any size will require that I replace at least one set of DW735 knives and send at least two sets of jointer knives to the sharpener. After working on the former parts of your board, your hand planes are probably just going on strike.  Seriously, the stuff is tough and parts of it are tougher than others. Have you tried planing cross-grain?

[TheFatBaron]

Yep - sorry, when I said "parallel to the grain" above, I meant to say "across the grain." Blame being distracted by a cute 1-year-old.

 

My planes shouldn't go on strike. I love them dearly and sharpen them after pretty much every project because I work mostly in black locust and jatoba, which dull the hell out of them. I'm moderately amused to see how well they work on jatoba - which is theoretically, harder and denser than hickory... then see them bounce of the hickory. I guess I need to get enough projects lined up to make a day-pass worth it at the shop...

[TRBaker]

Yeah, I understand the one year old, thing.  In reference to your original post, just remember, there is a reason they make sledge hammer handles out of hickory.

[wdwerker]

Have you tried making a skewed diagonal cut? Wipe some mineral spirits on the grain before cutting, never tried it myself but heard it works on some difficult grain.

I would flatten it with a router and a jig then sand it smooth.

[TheFatBaron]

I've tried diagonal, but I'll try again tonight after wiping with mineral spirits.

 

I don't have a router, so if it came to that point, I'll just save this (it's only a 10"x10"x2" block) for a day I can actually get to a shop and get it flattened then.

 

Re: sledghammer handles - indeed. They also make bokken (wooden training swords) out of them for similar reasons. Right now, though, I'm just trying to get a small mallet made.

[dwacker]

Spray it down with diluted faberic softener or glycerin mixture let it dry and give that a shot. I know it works well when planing knotty pine. Keeps the knots from being pulled while machining. Really just veneer softener, might work.

Don

[Dlhunter]

I'm not a hand tool expert but maybe a different angle on your plane blade. And how sharp are you getting it?

[TheFatBaron]

I got home super late last night, and actually made progress using mineral spirits. I'm only able to take thin shavings, but it's working. I'll try the diluted fabric softener and see if that works too.

 

That said... I just found out I have a couple other things to build, so I'm not going to kill myself getting this done when I'm just going to be going to the shop in a couple weeks. 

 

Darrel - it's a bevel down Stanley #5... I'm sharpening at... 30 or 40 degrees. I can't remember what I've got marked on my jig, but it's one of those. I'm sharpening up to a 10000 grit japanese waterstone... a Sigma something or other. Sharp enough to cut paper, shave hair, and yep, work every other wood I have. Freshly sharpened - my only other use was squaring up some pine and poplar.