Does "with the grain" include one or two directions?

[Deraj828]

I've long been aware of what a piece of wood's grain is and implies. At least, I thought so. But my brief experience and allusions from comments on this forum have got me reconsidering. When one is to "carve with the grain," I figured that meant that you run parallel with the grain whichever way you cut, rather than trying to cut perpendicularly across the grains. That is, you can comfortably cut up or down, but not left or right. I'm starting to suspect that it actually means you can only cut up (or down, as the case may be.)

If that's the case, my first question is how you decide which direction is the one direction you can carve. My second question is, how the heck can you carve anything by only cutting one direction? Two is restrictive already, but one? Geez!

I may be completely on the wrong track here. My observations while carving didn't seem to be consistent in which direction went smoothest, so it may have just been the goofy wood making things difficult. *shrug* You know my thoughts now, lead me to truth!

[pallin]

Grain direction is very important in woodcarving. Many woods have fibers that are not straight and parallel through the entire piece, so you must adjust your carving technique accordingly. My wife was recently carving a piece of mahogany in which the parallel fibers were curving up and down making it very difficult to find a good direction. She found it easiest to carve across the grain. This calls for very sharp gouges!
As a general rule, if your tool tends to lift the grain you are cutting against the grain. On a simple circle the correct "down grain" cuts will be in four directions. If you think of wood fibers as layers or "strata," the cuts will be sloping down across the layers.

[carver33]

With the grain could imply numerous directions. As Phil stated, cutting against the grain has the tendency to cause the tool to dig into the piece and lift the wood. Here's a diagram of cutting with the grain and against the grain in it's simplest form.

[Mitchell]

Bill, thanks for the illustration. In relation to Deraj's comment, both cutting directions are parallel with the grain but one is clearly 'against' the grain. A better way to describe it (for me) is "INTO" the grain. The original post by Deraj describes cutting ACROSS the grain. It is confusing....

[carver33]

Cutting Across the grain is simply cutting perpendicular to the grain (vertically, either up or down in the illustration). Cutting in this manner has the tendency to push the grain apart, so it is best accomplished with a very sharp tool and with a slicing motion.

That being said, rarely do you carve exactly across the grain, as a slight tip in either direction will have you carving with or against the grain. In some cases with more complex carvings, you cannot avoid carving against the grain - but you can do it with properly sharpened tool and the correct technique.

See revised sketch.

[jmischel]

One of the forum members posted a good article about this on his blog some time back. See The Old Stump: Demystifying Wood Grain.

[kai_gold]

Bill, Thanks for sharing the diagrams. I also found them really helpful.
Jim, Excellent link. Thanks.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Being just a old whittler I always see if the knife is going to split the wood rather than cut it. If it looks like it's going to split it, then I figure that I'm going against the grain.

[Bob K.]

If your knife is cutting smoothly without difficulty you are probably carving with the grain...if the blade tends to dig in and lift the wood you are carving against the grain.

[Robson Valley]

As pallin says, cutting a simple circle requires 4 cuts to go "with the grain". Western Red Cedar is mostly very straight-grained but splits easily, too. For me to cut a deep "V" in a circle, I use both R&L skews and 8 cuts to avoid lifting/splitting.