How do you tame wild grain?

[ChrisD]

Hope you don't mind another poll. Preparing for my next project, I'm curious what your preferred weapon is against difficult grain, which we'll loosely define as oriented in different directions on a given board.

Since stock is passed in only one direction on the jointer and planer, we won't include these options in the poll.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Never knew you could vote for more than one selection. I voted for card scraper and drum sander. I have a 16" Grizzly dual drum sander loaded with 120 grit and 180 grit. I also have a few card scrapers that I use.

[leehljp]

I am the first one to vote "Other". Since I started turning pens, I have found that wild grain from the crotch or knots makes the best pens. I don't have a lot of lumber with beautifully figured grain, certainly not enough for a nice piece of furniture. So I just set something like that aside to use for pens.

I did vote on the ROS and Card Scraper.

[JamesDad]

I get good results sanding with a ROS and then using a card scraper. The hard part for me is catching the grain problems before I have tearout.