The wood I work is considered challenging, however it has become an everyday event to plane it, and after doing so for 20 years, it is straight forward. Occasionally I use high angled planes still, but mostly I use a chipbreaker to control tearout. Doing so is the easy part of planing.
I still consider the harder part lies with profiling and setting the blade. In this regard it is achieving a desired degree of camber, and the ideal depth of cut, so that the final surface is both flat and that this is achieved efficiently.
I am about to start on a kitchen revamp. This will entail replacing all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts with Rock Maple Shaker frame-and-panel styled doors. There are about 25 doors in all and about 10 drawers. The wood will be finished in a poly varnish, or similar, because this is waterproof.
One of the design issues lies with the panels: they need to be dead flat and not show plane marks. By plane marks I am not referring to tracks, but to the very fine scallops that are created by a cambered blade. These will show up when light rakes across the surfaces. Ordinarily I like this, but it is not a desired feature for this kitchen. Consequently, my plan is to sand the panels. I rarely use a sander, and cannot recall when I last did so, since I would rather scrape than sand with furniture. However I do have a Festo ROS (the name of which is a give away ... what Festool became about 20 years ago), and Abranet sanding disks are magic. The panels will be planed and then finish sanded to 400 grit.
This is not a case of "which is better, planing or sanding?", but one of horses for courses. Reluctantly.
Any thoughts?
Regards from Perth
Derek