Sanding a hand planed surface.

As usual, I'm concentrating on developing skills in WW but the skills of finishing get neglected.

Reading the literature on finishing is helpful but seems to ignore my particular conundrum. My little project has a been planed flat and has that nice smooth glassy planed/scraped feel. It has never been touched by sandpaper. Do I now have to sand it all the way from 80G to 1200G and then apply my finish (Danish oil). Or is a properly planed finish good enough......better?

The literature seems to concentrate on getting something from the lathe or table saw, sanding and finishing.

It's a small knife block by the way.

Thanks
Adam

If you've done a good job - and it sounds like you have - you don't need to use sandpaper. A sharp plane slices the fibres clean. This gives a better, smoother surface than sandpaper - which abrades the surface and therefore leaves a slightly furry finish.

That's the theory (and I'll bet there are a few who will dispute it :p ). In the end, you are the best judge. If you're happy with the finish after planing then go ahead and apply your Danish oil. I made a cutlery drawer from recycled jarrah several weeks ago and finished it with Danish oil and Neil's Traditional Wax. Sandpaper never touched it. It was smoothed with my HNT Gordon smoothing plane. Feels like the finest silk and looks even better! :D

Col

I agree with you both [enlightened persons :) ] - having learnt this lesson myself.

Plane, seal, finish.
Thats all (for flat surfaces). Seal to avoid blotchiness and hyper-absorption(especially with an oil based finish).

The finest 16-17 Chinese, 18th century European, 19th American furniture were never sanded. Sandpaper simply didn't exist back then. Any sanding was actually done only with pumice and a felt block. The Japanese believe sandpaper 'violates the structure of the wood'; mind you, they usually don't apply any finish at all (when they do it's always natural lacquer, polished with powdered charcoal)

My electronic "finishing" sander is now nothing more than a noisy buffing tool.

zitan

I agree wif them twos, if you must sand after plaining, I'd start with 220 grit, or higher (at a guess).

Ben :)

One thing to remember. If you've done anything that closes the grain of the wood, you might have a problem staining the piece. In those cases, the stain would just sit on the surface rather than being absorbed by the wood.

I've had this happen after using a cabinet scraper (way back when), so you learn.

Ask a question, get an answer, problem solved. Great advice guys thanks. Given that I hate sanding with a passion it's good to hear that I can minimise it with a good plane technique.

When you say "sealer" do you mean the product labelled as Sanding Sealer?

A cabinet scraper is not something I've delved into yet. The sharpening technique looks rather difficult.............

Cheers.

The latest update on the HNT Gordon website shows one way of finishing large flat surfaces.
http://www.hntgordon.com.au/planingtabletop.htm

At the bottom of the page he mentions that sanding is not required until after the first coat of finish has been applied (don't know what the finish is though).
I use Penetrol wood oil which I think is similar to Danish oil and only use sandpaper (8oo or higher wet and dry) on the 2nd or 3rd coat and sand while the oil is still wet (keep adding oil if the surface dries out), seems to get the required result, won't clog the paper and doesn't make dust.