Different grain types. End/long grain, are all four sides of the long grain the same?

[ryandetzel]

So there's the end grain and then the long grain but is the long grain on the face of the board the same as the sides? Is there a concern with running the side long grain through a planer like there is with end grain?

[Screamer777]

The wood grain is almost like straws, packing very densly together. From the top of the 'straws" there is more resistance than from the sides. So it does not matter which side of the long grain you refer. That is why wood is classified as quater sawn, rift sawn and plain sawn. So it would make no difference.Long grain is only limited in which way the grain "flow", whatever side you tackle on the planer or jointer.

[Darnell Hagen]

The only concern running side grain through the planer is that the board could topple over. Not running boards 1/2" thick or less on their side, and skewing the board as it goes through the planer helps.

[mattvan]

So there's the end grain and then the long grain but is the long grain on the face of the board the same as the sides? Is there a concern with running the side long grain through a planer like there is with end grain?

Long grain is long grain whether it's on the face of the board or the edge. So it'll plane almost identically.

I have to agree the only concern with planing the edge is if it's too thin, but I do it quite frequently as another option to get equally parallel boards.

If you have multiple thin boards of equal width, try ganging them up together to pass them through the planer safely.

[dwacker]

I run all my stiles and rails through my planer then drum sander on edges for final dimensioning. 3/4 and thicker is no problem at all.

Don

[Beechwood Chip]

I sometimes see people talk about "face grain" and "edge grain". I assume that they mean "not end grain, you know, the grain on the edge."

[andreas]

As a point of interest, I recently learned that the side and face grain behave differently when it comes to expansion. Trees expand and contract most in the direction of the annual growth rings and only about half as much across it. This explains why cupping occurs since the boards don't expand uniformly in all directions.

[mattvan]

And that's why lumber that is quarter sawn is considered extremely stable across the width of a board. BUT because it's thickness is more likely to expand, if you were to edge glue a quarter sawn board to a flatsawn board there can be a point when the wood is expanding and contracting due to season movement that a small ridge will appear at the joint line.

The quartersawn board has begun to increase it's thickness while the flatsawn stays relatively the same in thickness, but may in fact be expanding or contracting across its width. Moral of the story, read your growth rings LOL.

[rmac]

Isn't that diagram backwards? I'm pretty sure the radial expansion (from the center of the tree outwards) is less than the other way, not greater.

Also (as Matt is saying), how the expansion occurs relative to the faces and edges of any given board depends on how that board was cut from the tree.

-- Russ

[andreas]

You're right Russ, I have it backwards. Thanks for setting me straight. I removed my earlier diagram so nobody else would be confused by it.

Matthias has a good description of it here:

http://woodgears.ca/.../shrinkage.html

He says "There is almost no shrinkage in the direction of the wood's grain (lengthwise). There is some shrinkage radially (perpendicular to the growth rings), and a greater amount of shrinkage tangentially (along the curvature of the growth rings)."

[rmason]

I sometimes see people talk about "face grain" and "edge grain". I assume that they mean "not end grain, you know, the grain on the edge."

I think the confusion comes from when people talk about the faces of quarter sawn lumber being "edge grain".