I'll throw in yet another WAG, for completeness - there's nothing wrong.

Even with freshly sharpened blades, you'll have some slight compression of the
wood surface, which may vary with density. In some cases, I can joint the edge
of a piece of cherry and see those ripples with a raking light. If not, then
adding a darker stain will usually bring them out. I typically use a hand
plane on edges and a scraper plane to clean faces before finishing.

Depending on your blade sharpness, the depth of cut, and the density variation
of the wood, and your finishing schedule, you may not see the issue. In any
case, make your last pass through the machine as light a cut as possible.

GerryG

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 19:40:30 -0400, Wally wrote:

I have a 6" General International jointer and a 13" Delta dual speed
planer. I'm currently working on a maple/cherry dresser and I've
noticed a weird thing when I plane/joint wood.

In a few places the surface of the wood has some small ripples. I
tried changing the speed at which I feed the stock and I don't seem to
see any difference. The funny part is this rippling isn't all over the
board but just in a few places. It happens with both the jointer and
the planer. I can get rid of them by sanding though.

Anybody can explain me why I get this results.

Thanks for any piece of wisdom.

Wally