when I start to work on a project I read the grain of the wood that's come from
the lumberyard and it has rough sawn surface or a planed surface but what I
try to do when I'm reading the grain I want to explain what reading the grain
is really because it's my interpretation of what's going on inside the wood and
this is determined by the growth of the tree as it grows from the earth it
reaches up to the sky the songs warming the leaves the growth
is taking place on the outside of the tree and each year the tree grows and it
puts on an extra layer on the outside so I have to interpret what's inside that
wood before I start because it makes my work more efficient I'm more economic if
I can understand what's going to affect the ham tool that I work the wood with
then I can shorten my time working against the grain as we call it and I'll
explain that as we go so sometimes we do hit grain that rises up against us and
we have to knock it down somehow get it level get it smooth but then we also
have to work with the chisels work with the plane work with the source to see
what's going to happen to do that best we have to understand the grain so we're
going to read the grain as we work along through a project so let me show you
what I'm looking for when I look at a piece of wood I've got several pieces of
wood back here different pieces different types of tree and each one has
its own idiosyncrasy there are no two trees even within the species the grain
will be different with each one but when we get to trees like you which is the
one on the far right there and we move over to the left we've got very
undulating grain in some oh we have all these different grains that we work with
and we want these grains because they're what give it the characteristic when
we're making the piece of furniture we use these pieces 2ds in these grains to
decorate the piece we use them for their stability we're looking for all manner
of things that will give our pieces whatever it's fir whether it's furniture
a bolt a guitar and instrument of some kind we're looking at these pieces of
differently for each particular application we're going to use in the
piece I'm gonna go now I want to look at this simple P this is just a piece of
pine I picked it up off the floor I want to look at this with you because I want
you to understand what I'm looking for when I look at this piece of wood so
when I see this piece of wood I want to make their box out of this this is
obvious this to any woodworker is or not but what we don't always realize is that
that not is the is the root of the Bronx that's coming off the tree so this is my
branch here so I'm looking for this branch because this branch branches off
in the direction and what it causes within this sphere this area around here
you can see these onion skins here this onion shape of wood and what that is is
the compression and contention of the wood so one is stretching on one side
the other is compressing under the weight of the branch on the other so
these things take place in all woods whether it's oak whether it's an exotic
species or something like that this is happening throughout the wood so let's
take a look at this area here first because on the edge of the on the face
of the board here we can see this coming up here when I start to play in this if
I surface playing this I can run into a problem
straight away now I'm gonna plane this with a very sharp edged smoothing plane
over the top of the knot and I can scarcely sell the difference when I hit
the nut but if I take a heavy set plane like this one here this this surface
here is smooth but as I transferred from here I was going with the grain here
because the grain was rising up this way when I hit this side of the wood it's
rising up this way that's when I hit the snag so watch what happens here I hit
the nut and that is causing me a severe problem but what it's doing on the out
out cut of the nut here I've got this torn grain here that I didn't get with
the super sharp smooth this is still a sharp plane but it's heavyset
and what happens is I'm now going against the grain because this grain is
rising up around the branch it's supporting the blacks that's what it's
supposed to do so I see this beforehand and I say to myself I have to take very
shallow cuts or I have to come from this direction change direction take the very
same plane and on this side of the cut it's as smooth as can be on this side
but then on the opposite side what was smooth before is now torn out so I've
ripped this grain out by its route I've pulled it out because the heavy set on
the plane is going underneath the gray doesn't have time to cut and it rips it
from the body of wood so I think that's important those are different elements
this is the branch sweeping off this is the way the tree grows and we have to
work within the natural properties of the wood to affect the best cut so in
this case I would usually go with a super smooth shallow set on my plane
like this and work down the level all the way across like this that will get
both sides of it smooth but not the one on the other side is not going to be as
good as the one on this side let's take a look at this one here here's another
not here this is where that's their branch this is what we call a dead knock
this actually is a dead not to because what's this this I can see this is
popping inside it's no longer connected to the bait the main body of wood you'll
come across some nuts that are actually still tied in with the main body of wood
those are living nuts or live nuts this is a dead knot and the more I move this
the more the fibers will allow me to release it so when I'm looking at a
piece of wood I'm also looking at whether these different layers let's
take a look at this here this one looks as though it's at the top
these and these are all stacking up this way in actuality this is the lowest
point this is from the dead center or nearer to the center of the tree how do
I know that I look at these lines radiating so this is the near to the
center of the tree this is the outside but because of the knot this is brought
to the top so this is actually underneath this layer of growth this is
underneath this layer of growth underneath this layer of growth this
layer and this layer till I get to here so technically this has to be planed in
this direction but when I get to this side I've got the problem this is where
you start to see why we try to interpret we read the grain and that gives us the
best way of looking at the wood so that we lose as little time as possible and
it's about economy in this case I've got a variety of different woods here I've
got different species of tree because each one has its own idiosyncrasy and
even within the species they're going to be different you can see where when I
was talking about the knot when I was talking about the layers of the grain
how it changes well it changes because the branches are growing on the trees
and that's what gives us the the texture within the tree where the grain is
growing around the knot where the tree starts with a broad base and goes
narrower to the top that's the outer layer Bill being laid on top of the
inner layers on top of the inner layers I've got a piece of cherry here that I
picked out it shows the not coming up here another not here those are the
branches I was talking about I've got layers here one I can see one
layer on top of another layer on top of another I have to work out whether one
is underneath the piece or one is on top of the piece in this case this layer
here comes to a point here and on this edge here it goes off here again another
layer here it goes off here so because they come to a point it tells me which
direction to plane in if I was to plane in this direction like this I would get
a very smooth passage with my plane and the wood would be super smooth if
go against the grain and go in this direction I know it will tear let me
show you what I mean because I think this helps me the most if I go in this
direction now my wood is super smooth this is silky smooth this feels as
smooth as any piece of grass what happens if I go in the opposite
direction my plane is sharp but if I go in this direction now it could still
work but I doubt it see here it's it's jumping it's cutting
over the surface and it's actually torn the grain in a very unpleasant way in
here this is my fingernail cats is on it's no longer smooth I went against the
grain if I can interpret that ahead of time as I did before I will have super
smooth wood and I'll save myself a lot of heartache when I come to planing
surfaces on the other hand there are some woods like this one this is a piece
of wood I probably wouldn't even try to plain I wouldn't hand play in this I
would use a scraper instead of a plane simply because by my interpretation this
grain is waving in and out it's an unusual pattern for oak but it is so
temperamental when I come to playing this I know this wood so I look at the
surface I look at the sides I look at the way the grain goes up and down this
is like quilted inside the wood it's like a quilted pattern I know I can't
play in this if I can interpret that I save time I say wood and I saved myself
a lot of agony when I'm working on the wood so that will give you some idea but
what Woods will plane well and what woods won't play well this is a piece of
quarter sawn oak how do I know that I read the grain and I can see these what
we call Maduri medullary rays or Ray cells and this is
where the Rays come from the epicentre of the grain so migraine in
this case I can see these rings these are called growth rings sometimes called
annular annual rings but because they grow annually in certain countries they
may not grow annually in other countries they make if you are in the tropics for
instance the tropics isn't Intel isn't controlled by winter in some of the same
way we are so I take my piece of wood here just to show you what I mean
this is cortisol this is oak and this is probably any quarter sawn wood is
probably the most stable wood of all types of wood so here I complain this
grain in any direction and get a super smooth this is so smooth I'm going to
try and see what we get when I go in the opposite direction because it's
quarter-sawed and I get exactly the same feeling so I've got this super smooth
surface I interpreted the grain I chose the wood for that reason I'm making the
frame of a door I'm making a tabletop something like that I get this wonderful
grain I can plan it in other direction I'm interpreting I'm looking at the
grain and I'm reading the grain I'm reading inside I'm reading the edges I'm
reading the surface I can get to the core of what I want that's the very
inside of the tree what's happening beneath the surface is what's showing on
the top a bit like if you were watching the river and you saw a ripple on the
surface of a river you would know that there was something underneath the
river's surface that was causing this undulation you'd see a branch down in
the water you'd see some rocks down on the bottom this is exactly the same
things we're trying to look through the surface not at the surface itself
because if we can do that we can better understand the nature of the wood what's
going on inside each individual piece that we pick up and we make very
economical movements when we're working with our hand tools