I am working on the deck pattern of my guillemot and have gotten on to using some 1/4 by 1/4 walnut strips. The prob I ran into today while trying to work a taper into the end of a strip was my plane didnt want to cut at all. I have used it on cedar, pine, lyptus. It was sharpened before I started on the lyptus and I did eight tapers, they seemed harder to cut than the soft woods, but the walnut is like planing a rock! and the end of the taper keeps breaking off just as I almost have the fit right!

Is my plane dull from the lyptus?, or am I missing something? is there a trick to making tapers in hard, dense woods like walnut?

two cents please,
thanks
dave g