Planing vs. Sanding

[Clay Fails]

Is there an easy way to tell what sanding grit, if any, to start with after planning a piece with a hand plane (e.g. #4) or a card scraper? Or do some of you go straight to finishing without sanding, if you have a smooth,clean surface off the handplane?

thanks,

[Metod Alif]

Clay,
Do not 'mess up' a nicely planed surface with sanding:mad:, except when your finish schedule involves staining. In such cases you need to rough up the surface by hand sanding with 150 or 180 grit sandpaper. The staining pigment can then lodge into the scratches created by sanding.
Best wishes,
Metod

[Harold Burrell]

Clay,
Do not 'mess up' a nicely planed surface with sanding:mad:, except when your finish schedule involves staining. In such cases you need to rough up the surface by hand sanding with 150 or 180 grit sandpaper. The staining pigment can then lodge into the scratches created by sanding.
Best wishes,
Metod

Yeah...what he said. :)

[Loren Woirhaye]

Well, it depends on how successful you are in getting a tearout-free surface from the plane and/or scraping marks. Tearout can be filled and then sanded flush where it occurs. There's a place for hand planed surfaces but I usually find I have to do some sanding if I want most wood surfaces to feel uniform under my fingers. I like hand-planed surfaces but they aren't appropriate for all work and finishes.

[Kevin Bourque]

A good, sharp card scraper is my "final sanding".

[Larry Edgerton]

In my opinion it depends on the wood, the finish to be used and the environment that it is going to be used.

For example a hard, non porous wood with a scraped finish will not hold thicker or fast drying finishes well, especially if the enviroment it must live in is at all harsh, like an old house that dries out in the winter and gets humid in the summer. Sanding does help finishes to adhere.

For instance on a Lacquer I sand to 150, do a light coat, sand to 220 for a full coat, and 320 for final. Looks like an automotive finish when done, and does not let go. I get the whole scraper thing but I'm making a living at this stuff, so I do what works for me.

Larry

[paul cottingham]

Any time I need to sand a surface, I break out my no.80 scraper. I hate sanding.
Oh, and what Harold said. :D

[Chris Padilla]

Clay, I've thought long and hard about moving this thread to the Neander Forum but I think they might be a tad harsh on you in there! hahaha

I take it you're about as good as I am using hand planes as a final finish.

Take a look at your board with a strong light source at very acute angles and moving it around a bit and look at the surface.

Or, wipe the board real well with mineral spirits. It'll clean the board and provide you a nice preview of how your finish might look. It will reveal any imperfections.

Only then can you discern what grit you might need to use.

Remember, sanding is a process of removing the previous grits sanding marks to a point where you like how the surface feels or how it will react to your choice of finish.

Amazing enough, some finishes will look a lot different on 120 grit final versus 180 grit final. It depends on the wood and the finish. Go ahead, take a board and divide in in half and sand each section to a different final grit. Apply your stain. You might be surprised.

[Clay Fails]

Clay, I've thought long and hard about moving this thread to the Neander Forum but I think they might be a tad harsh on you in there! hahaha

I take it you're about as good as I am using hand planes as a final finish.

Take a look at your board with a strong light source at very acute angles and moving it around a bit and look at the surface.

Or, wipe the board real well with mineral spirits. It'll clean the board and provide you a nice preview of how your finish might look. It will reveal any imperfections.

Only then can you discern what grit you might need to use.

Remember, sanding is a process of removing the previous grits sanding marks to a point where you like how the surface feels or how it will react to your choice of finish.

Amazing enough, some finishes will look a lot different on 120 grit final versus 180 grit final. It depends on the wood and the finish. Go ahead, take a board and divide in in half and sand each section to a different final grit. Apply your stain. You might be surprised.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I usually sand after final planing; just never sure whether to start at 150, 180 etc. Will keep testing....

[Chris Friesen]

Normally if I'm sanding after planing it's because I'm trying to match a planed surface to one that I had to sand for whatever reason, in which case I'd just jump to the final grit used on the other piece.

If you're trying to get rid of tearout and no hand tools work (not even a scraper) then I'd go through the grits on sandpaper like usual.

[Jim Matthews]

I was trained to hand sand after final planing for two reasons;
dust reveals where there are surface imperfections,
my favorite finish (Waterlox) needs a slightly roughened surface or it pulls away from edges
due to surface tension as it cures.

[Todd Burch]

If I found an old bottle, rubbed it, and a Genie popped out who granted me 3 wishes... my first wish would be to have the skill to be able to effortlessly hand plane wood and scrape it to a perfectly smooth and glowing deep finish that only (*ONLY*) a razor sharp edge can produce.

Anytime you grab the sandpaper, and I do this myself EVERY STINKING TIME, the finish goes downhill from what it could be if you or I could achieve the skill of my wish and didn't have to grab the sandpaper. Period.

I hate sandpaper... but I can't be that mad at it, because it saves my hiney every time.

My advice: strive for no sand paper.

Todd