What 's your favorite way to get the smoothest

[Alan Tolchinsky]

surface on solid wood after machining. I have some hard maple legs that I first used a #4 Bailey plane followed by scraping. Things looked pretty smooth so I went to #220 grit paper. The results looked good but I was wondering what others do to get a smooth surface that's ready for finishing with a wipe on finish. Thanks Alan

[Mark Singer]

Alan,
I don't sand after planning ,220 grit is making fine scratches. Plane and use the scraper to remove plane marks. Planing leaves slight undulations in the surface....nice! Then a hand rubbed oil finish and wax....puefect!

[Dean Baumgartner]

I think that if I was going to hand plane and then use a scraper I'd leave it at that. The sand paper may feel like it's a smoother finish than than the scraper but as Mark said it is really putting a bunch of small scratches on the surface. Take a look at the difference between stained wood that has been scraped versus sanded. The fine scratches from sandpaper seem to absorb more stain and if you magnify the surface will look kind of fuzzy.

Dean

[Alan Tolchinsky]

planing method and see if I can skip the sand paper. I guess I'm just used to the sandpaper method.