Try planing it with the surface planer as close to final thickness as you
can (meaning, leave enough so the tear-out won't go all the way down). Then
use a very high-angled smoothing plane, followed by a scraper plane to get
it down to final thickness and remove the tear-out.

Mike

"Mike" wrote in message
...
HI all,
i recently bought some beautiful 4/4 quarter sawn sycamore. the
problem is i started planing it down this weekend and had massive
amounts of tear out. Does anyone have any advice before i ruin this
board? Thanks in advance for your help.

Mike