In starting to work on the Craftsman inspired end table, I am, for the first time, working with rough stock. I must say, it is very cool seeing what appears when you begin to joint and plane the rough lumber – how the grain really starts to show itself.

And I learned a lesson in the process – pay attention to grain direction!

I actually did – for the most part… but as you can see from the picture above, this was the one time I forgot, and fed this piece through my planer the wrong way, resulting in a “little bit of tearout”… d’oh! There was that “missing piece” that you see that was starting to lift away a bit, and by the time I noticed it going through the planer, it was too late. A though of “uh oh”, then a “ka-chunk!” sound, and this is how it came out the other side.

Luckily, I left the piece overly long and hadn’t planed it down to final thickness yet, so this wasn’t a fatal mistake. Phew!