What Some People Do Not Know About Grain Direction 

I prefer the "petting the cat the wrong way" vs the "petting the dog the wrong way analogy" because the dog is just going to look at you like it's trying to figure out what you think you are doing, while the cat is going to ruin your whole day.

Thanks for the granular deep dive on grain direction. It's plane to see wood doesn't like being rubbed the wrong way.

Great video! Adjusting the frogs on my planes for a much smaller mouth seems like it's been the biggest difference in helping avoid tear out.

I first learned about grain direction when I started carving spoons. For that, knowing the direction is essential. Thanks for the great video

Yes! I liked the pet hair direction analogy. When teach my students about F&E marks, I venture it was just originally a cross, now drawn lazily, meeting an arrow head (now missing the tail) indicating the straight, 90' edge.

Honestly the best way you can learn about grain and how it interacts with your tools is to find a bunch of pallets and play around with the pallet lumber. It’s generally very knotty and has wild grain variation so you will have to adapt to the material you’re using. You’ll either learn a lot or curse me for suggesting this…

I was wondering what i was missing when i was carving my spoons. Now i know i gotta be real selective with the wood and pay attention to how i carve it. I have a bit more confidence now. I want to planely thank you for your great explanation and demonstrations

I find it astonishing that so many woodworkers apparently don't know that wood has a grain! Maybe it's because nowadays so much "wood" is actually ply/mdf/osb etc. But it's also as you say because so many people use power tools. Still, putting a wood with a really complicated grain through a planer/thicknesser, even if it's dead sharp, can also cause tear-out. For me, figuring out how to deal with grain is one of the things that make woodworking so fascinating, challenging and so beautiful when you get it right. It's what I think makes wood such a noble material, compared to "dead" materials like composite "woods" or plastic. Learning how to go with the flow rather than fight it is at the core of good woodworking. Maybe one of the simplest ways of explaining it to someone who doesn't have a clue is to demonstrate how wood splits in one direction, but not in the other. It's also a good idea not always to buy wood, but to go out into the forest and start playing around with sticks, branches and logs to get a feel for it all. That way they'll learn pretty quickly what works and what doesn't.

I learned grain direction and using handplanes with pallet wood, sure it‘s controversial, but i‘m getting mine from a paper distributor nearby and know that only papers, magazines or flyers were on these pallets - the wood is bowed, cubed, twisted, has saw marks etc., so absolutely great for learning to flatten and getting it in dimensions. It also makes my wife happy, if I built drawerboxes for her knitting needles, boxes for her sewing threads or other „it would be nice, if you could built“ projects

👏 Thank you for this! Makes more sense now than it used to.

As a wood carver I learned very early about cutting against the grain, across the grain and end grain.

This is just plane great

That Japanese video is incredible, even if you don't understand Japanese or use subtitles, the lab setting and documentation fills almost all the holes in understanding.

Great video! We got deep into the building blocks and properties of wood - including grain direction - the first week in the beginner woodworking class first year of architecture school. First item on the agenda, before we even entered the actual shop. And it makes perfect sense! Working against the properties of the material you're trying to use is just so frustrating! Almost 20 years ago now. Ugh, time flies. It was an amazing place, we were blessed with amazing shop foremen and teachers who were both skilled craftspeople and curious adult children who were constantly experimenting with new technology and how to combine it with traditional crafts. Good times!

Red Oak will teach you grain really quickly. Especially boards with knots and grain that curls around it. Its beautiful, but extremely hard to smooth with a hand plane.

Slope of grain is very important in structural lumber, Select Struc is 1:12, #1- 1:10, #2-1:8. It can be hard to distinguish grain from figure at times, pores, ducts and rays can give good indications if you can see, we used a stylus tool in grading school as well. Checks and splits follow the grain. When a board breaks around a knot it is really a slope of grain problem and is one reason you never want to see a stud in beam service, they are limited to 1:4, which is usually around a large knot in a small stick. Oh, edit,, search for "Instruments for Rapidly Determining Slope of Grain in Lumber" USFPL.

Very helpful, thank you. I was aware of some of this, but your perspective on it was really interesting to hear. It was the first time that I thought about oak having chaotic grain, totally makes sense if you picture the growing tree.

I feel it's an ongoing learning lesson

Thanks for the lesson, James! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

Orange Dreamcicle ice cream pops are the best ice cream pops. Change my mind!

I've even seen David Charlesworth using Jeweller's Loupe to try see grain direction

Great advice. A vid on planing end grain would be peachy

my woodshop teacher demonstrated it with a bible, he bent it and ran his finger across the end to simulate going against and with the grain, that was the only reason that bible was in the shop

One day I will work with wood that doesn't have reversing grain everywhere...

Made a cedar apothecary chest for my wife as our wood anniversary gift. Just looking at it caused tearout.

Reading the grain is something that carpenter apprentices were taught as part of their training 40 years ago. Hard to believe anyone who has been working with wood for years doesn't know about grain direction or the differences between flat sawn rift sawn or quarter sawn.

The part I find really difficult is when jointing the edge of a board when the grain reverses and runs out the opposite direction.

Thanks so much James

I love my bevel up planes until I encountered a very figured hickory. I couldn't plane it without tear out despite using a 38 or 50 degree bevel blades. I'm adding traditional, Bailey style planes to my collection because bevel-down planes do have more control over tear out and the chip breaker should help.

Wood is like a genie in a bottle, as Christa Aguilera would say.

Thanks, James. This was a great video. Nice and clear.

the remake of the japanese video would be an amazing feat, I hope you can get to that!

I would really love to see a recreation of that university video. It seems like it would be really cool and educational. It seems like you would have to saw a plane in half or use a rebating plane to make it though. The carving comment made me curious if you would ever do more videos on relief carving or maybe fine inlay in the future? I know they are different but I have a hard time figuring out how some historical inlay is done to such a fine precision like narrow acute angles without something like a rotary tool that can maintain it's depth.

Thanks, for sharing that!

One thing that the Japanese university video didn't cover was the width of the mouth, they effectively did all the tests with a wide open mouth. Including that variable makes the setup more difficult but it would be useful information.

Snide comments, silly ice cream comments, questions on heating, and lots of supportive comments; just an observation.

Some twisted firewood would show your point perfectly. Where the grain might change middway.

A more modern version of the pantyhose test is to use a microfiber cloth. You'll feel it grab one in one direction with tiny little jerks as you go along.

Thank you, James!!!

Thanks for sharing.

Redoing that japanese video is a brilliant idea. You could test it with and without a tight mouth, too. IIRC they only used a blade and chip breaker. Not sure why.

well done James

Great job. Thank you 😊

I use a small whisk broom to demonstrate grain

[Snide remark here.]

If I'm struggling to read the grain I often run my fingers along the wood, one way usually feels smoother than the other and the plane usually agrees. Having not read the comments on grain direction, I was wonder if some of the queries were a misunderstanding of terminology and were querying whether it mattered whether you're planing up or down the tree rather than what we think of as grain direction. I have no idea if there's an ideal direction, whether you go up or down the tree but it's rather academic question given we are unlikely to ever find a piece of wood with grain perfectly following the face.

No, ma'am, I want to buy these pantyhose because I'm a woodworker...

thanks James

Great video. Thanks mate

Can we look for the moss to find North too? LOL.

GREAT information 👍.

You'd be surprised the high percentage of backyard bbq'rs / grillers having absolutely no idea that the direction one cuts their steaks (or most any fiberous protein) makes a difference in its eating tenderness... But... what about a grain of salt. Hopefully not taken in the wrong direction... Thank you for your excellent descriptions and examples.

Great video, this is one of the best exlanations I've ever heard since I started woodworking. Also I would like to challenge you James. Do you think that you would be able to make a strike plane with a mouth closer?? Hope you read this!!!

A fine grained video

Alcohol has grain too.

Instead of using pantyhose, I find I can usually feel the grain easily with just my fingertips (this wasn't true when I worked in a cabinet shop full-time, and my fingertips were worn smooth).

Wood grain can be tough, Oats are much softer.

Hurt your feelings. Great video

Thanks

Even metal has a grain.

El mejor ejemplo posible, jaja saludos

Hair of the dog for breakfast

1.) At work one day, I didn’t know how to do something, and kept apologizing for it. The customer was very kind and patient and said “That’s okay. We all have to be new some time. 2.) Can one change the frog in a plane to make it a low-angle plane? 1/2

43F outside, 62F in house - wife wants furnace on. Should I give in???☺😪

If I pat my dog the wrong way all I get is a heap of dog hair all over the place. Can you get wood flour from wood grain?

I find it really tough to swallow that woodworkers who have done it "for decades" haven't learned about grain direction yet! Have they never used a chisel???

Maybe the wrong forum but do you prefer RU-vid membership or patreon membership?

I am sure you said Motte-Bailey not modern bailey 😂

Which way should I plane the edge of plywood?

You’re in too deep. How did you find that university video? Decade-old, VHS-resolution, Japanese narrator and on a Russian channel with only 1 video 😂

Cool.

I feel a comment coming on!

Great tutorial and corny jokes!

3.) What differences do bevel angles make (two Stanley 5s are the exact same in every way, except one bevel is 25 degrees and the other is 30 degrees)? 2/2

Well, you didn't cover skewing your plane as you cut. In turning, I liken it to hitting speed bumps in the parking lots. Hit the bump square, and you get a pretty big bump. Hit it at a 45 degree angle, and that bump smooths out a LOT! By skewing the plane/making the cut at an angle rather than square, you get a lesser angle, which to me makes for a more "gentle" action of gently lifting the wood rather than what a more blunt angle will do. Wish we could have all the lumber come from riving! To froe or not to froe, that is the question!

Stroked the wrong way down below

People Do Not Know

Comment for the sake of content.

Great tips, what about skewing the angle of the plane. I have found this to be helpful but is that just because I did something else wrong?

Comment down below.

Hate to be smartass (j/k I love it) but the Latin word from which "face" is derived also starts with "F". Now what grain does around a knot is another story -- usually on either side of the knot the grain runs in opposite directions -- either both rising or both falling -- then one of them might hit a peak or valley and reverse and be the same as the other side and maybe the rest of the board.

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Ive learned grain direction doesnt matter on small pieces of wood, before i work on any smaller pieces i just simply microwave it for 30-40 seconds with a half full cup of water in the microwave. Does wonders

funnily enough, you never actually proved that there is a direction to grain. "In the direction of the grain" is highly misleading for someone not used to woodworking. Grain doesn't have a direction. There is a direction in which it's easier to plane, but it's not the "direction of the grain", rather, it's the direction where the grain rises up at a certain slope (cat hair analogy).

Second comment down below

5:52 i believe it comes from latin "facie" (the e is not silent), and since there's a lot of latin based languages that's why it's very common

First comment down below

Fun fact “pet the dog” perpendicular to the grain to minimize splinters.

That’s a long freaking time ago.

My comment is going to really hurt your feelings.

Geoff Peterson from Craig Ferguson? Wow you work with him now? Introduce this Geoff or he is not real.