Thread: How do I stop end-grain scorching?

Go faster. Sharp cutters. If the router isn’t changing it’s sound when cutting, you’re going too slow, make it work.

Think of your router as a spinning hand plane. If you were using a hand plane to do the same job you would not be taking as deeper cut on end grain as you would when planing with the grain. You would also be more inclined to use a block plane to tackle the ends. The router bit is being asked to perform both duties. Something has to suffer. And it is usually the end grain. If you take shallower cuts on the ends, particularly on final passes you will find the friction burn is no longer evident. I prefer to do my end grain first and then the long grain. This means the chipping at the end of the end grain cut profile is removed when the long grain is done later.