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End grain burns easily on maple and cherry, and those burns are hard to remove. After sanding my fingers to the bone following one particularly unfortunate routing pass, I came up with an easy solution that removes those unsightly burns without requiring that I adjust the bit’s height or fuss with an edge guide.
Before routing, I put three layers of masking tape on the bottom of the board’s edge, where the bit’s bearing rides. Then I make two passes. The first pass produces the rough profile, when burning is most likely to occur. After making the initial pass, I remove the tape and rout again. This very fine second pass removes all but the worst burns. If this method still leaves scorches, your feed rate is too slow or you need a new router bit.
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