On Thu, 31 May 2012 16:47:03 -0700 (PDT), rich
wrote:

Hi All, Not normally woodworking season, but I have to make a
funeral urn/casket. The wood is old Juniper, dead for a dozen years
at least, and left standing. I cut some down, then sawed it into 3/4
planks. Now the issue is that when I run it thru the planer, I get
little chips in the surface where the grain goes crazy. And there
isn't hardly any straight grain anywhere!

I have to use this wood, as it came from the person's yard.

I will be using new blades on my Delta planer once I get the boards
roughly to size. I tried some thin CA but that didn't seem to help
much. Hoped it would help prevent tearout. Also taking a very light
cut each pass.

Has anyone any suggestions as to how to treat the wood to help
prevent the chips tearing out? Any help will be REALLY appreciated!

Thanks to all.

Rich.....

I have never worked with Juniper but you can try dampening the surface
before planing. Hopefully the moisture will soften the surface to
lessen the tear out.
--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA