against the grain

in opposition to the flow (of wood, meat, etc.); in opposition to what is natural

There are several books with the title Against the Grain:Against the Grain, one English title of À rebours, a Symbolist novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans (Also known as Against Nature, the second English title)Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood, edited by Bhob StewartAgainst the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food, by Marc LappeAgainst the Grain: The New Criterion on Art and Intellect at the End of the Twentieth Century, edited by Hilton KramerAgainst the Grain: Southern Radicals and Prophets, 1929-1959, by Anthony P. DunbarAgainst the Grain: Agri-Environmental Reform in the United States and the European Union, by Clive Potter Against the Grain: Parody, Satire, and Intertextuality in Russian Literature, edited by Janet G. TuckerAgainst the Grain: New Anthology of Contemporary Austrian Prose, edited by Adolf OpelAgainst the Grain: An Autobiography, by Boris YeltsinAgainst the Grain: An Irreverent View of Alberta, by Catherine FordAgainst the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization, by Richard Manning 
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A plane is a tool for shaping wood. Planes are used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of lumber. Special types of planes are designed to cut joints or decorative mouldings.Hand planes are generally the combination of a cutting edge, such as a sharpened metal plate, attached to a firm body, that when moved over a wood surface, take up relatively uniform shavings, by nature of the body riding on the 'high spots' in the wood, and also by providing a relatively constant angle to the cutting edge, render the planed surface very smooth. A cutter which extends below the bottom surface, or sole, of the plane slices off shavings of wood. A large, flat sole on a plane guides the cutter to remove only the highest parts of an imperfect surface, until, after several passes, the surface is flat and smooth.
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against the natural way, rub the wrong way Some words go against the grain. Their spellings aren't natural.

Synonyms and related words:
a rebours, a reculons, abhorrent, against the tide, against the wind, anticlockwise, arear, arsy-varsy, ass-backwards, astern, at cross-purposes, at daggers, at daggers drawn, at issue, at odds, at variance, at war with, athwart, away, back, backward, backwards, by contraries, contra, contrarily, contrariously, contrariwise, conversely, counter, counterclockwise, cross, cross-grained, dislikable, displeasing, distasteful, eyeball-to-eyeball, fro, hindward, hindwards, in confrontation, in flat opposition, in hostile array, in opposition, in reverse, intolerable, inversely, just the opposite, mislikable, nay rather, odious, on the contrary, oppositely, otherwise, per contra, quite the contrary, rather, rearward, rearwards, retrad, to the contrary, topsy-turvy, tout au contraire, uncongenial, uninviting, unlikable, unlovable, unpleasant, up in arms, upside down, vice versa, widdershins, with crossed bayonets,
  

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