On making a plane hammer I am curious about wood for the head, as I can't
work with brass, I have a head of purple heart cut out and ready to drill for
the handle's tenon. But when I was planing it to smooth (or, tryng to) it merely
gained a lot of tear-out (multi directional grain, it seems) and seems to be a
very chippy wood. So I wonder, if there is any common or exotic wood that
can deal with tapping the blade, a hard enough wood, what would it be?

--
Alex - "newbie_neander" woodworker
cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
not my site: http://www.e-sword.net/