I watched a YouTube video on making an end grain cutting board. Yep, off to a great start, right?
Well, I sanded through a drum sander that finishes at 120. It had some machines marking, so I sanded through the grits with a random orbital sander (ROS) 80-220; water popping at 180 before 220. The YouTuber said he hand sands with 320 for an, “ultra smooth finish.” I definitely didn’t do a thorough job of uniformly hand sanding. . .
After applying mineral oil & a mineral oil/beeswax finish (4 to 1 mixture of mineral oil to beeswax), buffing it out with a buffer, and toweling off any residual oil/wax I noticed the uneven scratches I had created by hand sanding.
Would anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? I know that the oil/wax will just clog sand paper up quite rapidly, but if that is the best course to get the sheen uniform I will do it.
Perhaps it’s unnoticeable. I only noticed because I had a few bright work lights (no diffuser) when I took some pictures. See pics.
In the future I will sand through the grits 80 to 320 only using a ROS and water pop at 180 and perhaps 220 as well.
Thank you ahead of time for anyone who responds!
Replies
Cut up some chicken, clean it up with steel wool & soap and move on with your day. Trying to get a pristine surface on a cutting board is kinda nuts when you remember you'll be chopping oinions on it tomorrow. If it looks good, it is good.
I dig it, and I smell what you’re cookin’. If I was going to keep them, which I might end up doing, then I would do just that. However, I was hoping to sell them at a local “maker” store and didn’t want them to be denied shelf space.
Just so!
The patina of a cutting board (the "look" it acquires through use) should include all sorts of cuts, dings, patches of blemish and eventually hills & vales. Some of those old butcher blocks that look like The Rockies are sold for ridiculous amounts just because they look so used.
I have a large iroko & teak end grain board I made many years ago that's used daily in the kitchen for all sorts. It looks reet-good with all the slash-lines from cutting up the daily loaf with a 16 inch lethally sharp bread knife. Yes.
Lataxe, sporting an 'andsome "well-used" patina meself.
End grain really shows scratches badly, as you have found out. Same is true of some figured woods, as the figure is often really semi-end grain sections.
One thing to know is that you need to really thoroughly clean the wood between sanding grits, or you risk scratching the surface with pieces of abrasive left over from larger grit sizes that get picked up and moved around by the sandpaper. You might have done that with the hand sanding.
Linear hand sanding is only best for long grain sanding, not end grain. I would use the RO sander with 320 grit, maybe even 400 to finish. Then wet with mineral spirits to see if all the scratches are gone. You could try wiping the surface of the piece with a solvent (mineral spirits, naptha?) to remove some of the oil/wax before sanding. Might need several pieces of sandpaper...
By the way, have you ruled out the possibility that the scratches are remaining from the wide belt sander?
Good luck!
Thanks for the info! I believe I’ve ruled out residual markings from the drum sander. I sanded those out with 80 grit and meticulously checked that they were gone. I also make sure to blow, vacuum, and wipe between grits to ensure no stray particles from previous grits.
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They look great to me, and I can't see a shelf space issue. If you encounter a shelf space issue, then you can respond accordingly.
My trick is simple. Wet sanding. I wet sand after going through the normal progression of grits. I used synthetic steel wool by 3M and oil. If you are working up a slurry of oil and dust it's working.
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