Where are some good resources (books, blogs, websites) on using blades and scrapers to finish? I’ve always sanded to 150-180, and am wanting to lean more towards using a blade as the last step before finish.
the wood whisperer had a decent video on this, but I’d like some more info on cleaning up the cut marks from something like a smoothing plane. I also don’t even know what plane could be best, I’ve got my #4 very sharp and set up well, but I’m wondering if a Japanese kanna plane might be better, or if there’s better options out there. Thanks for any help, this one’s been tricky.
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Rob Cosman goes from a planed surface to a finish. He has a very successful Youtube following and a hand tool only online workshop.
I also follow Tom McLaughlin and I still can’t figure out why he uses both sanding and planing. He’ll plane first then sand. 🤷♂️
I recall reading a Bob Flexner article where he recommended a light sanding after planing too.
I can't speak for Tom, but I've sanded after planing too. If I've planed some areas and had to scrape others I'll then sand everything to give the wood a consistent surface finish. Usually, only one fine grit.
I've also seen it pop up in old text books. Plane to get the surface flat and then sand with high grit paper to make it look perfect. Only for the visible areas though.
I agree with Eric. I started doing serious woodworking using hard maple and cherry. Neither ever seemed "straight grained", with chunks popping out too often. A more experienced woodworking encouraged me to refine my cabinet scraper sharpening technique. As he said, he would be applying finish while the guys using sanders would be changing grits. I also discovered that using sandpaper coarser than 220 grit on cherry left sanding scratches that were time-consumingly difficult to remove.
I usually use Waterlox Original, a wiping varnish, as my favorite finish. After I scrape or plane the wood to remove the machine marks and flush the corners of the door frames, I sand with 220 grit by hand or random-orbit, then 32o by hand. This evens the texture and shows any slight chatter or mis-cut at the beginning or end of a stroke. Planing or scraping is much faster than sanding with coarse grits. For oil finishes, there is a definite difference/improvement going from 220 to 320 before applying the finish.
Exactly what you do after planing/scraping depends on the finish you intend to apply. For my latest project for a church, to match the existing woodwork, I used a custom mixed oil based stain, and needed a relatively dense, uniform color. After planing the yellow poplar, I sanded the whole thing with sharp 150 grit on a RO sander, to put lots of micro-scratches in the surface for the stain particles to lodge in. After two coats of stain (and ample drying time) I applied 4 coats of Waterlox.
If you're getting "cut marks" from a smoothing plane, call up some videos on rounding the cutting edge of your plane blade, that's the part I think you're missing.
For the last 20 years or so, I've only used sandpaper on plywood, or during the finishing process. Sanding introduces fine sawdust into the wood's pores, and will never look as good as a wood surface neatly sliced.
I always put some extra strokes on the sides of the blades, following something close to:
10 5 3 5 10
In terms of how many per part, so the fact that I’m getting scratches was surprising to me but my error might be more in how I’m actually doing the strokes, or even how I’m planing. Sandpapers always the go to in terms of my actual work or when cabinet making but with fine furniture and hobby stuff like you said the neatly sliced wood just looks so great
I use this as well to put a very slight camber on my smoothing plane. I rarely use sandpaper. Rather I rely on the hand plane for the final surface. Both shellac and oil finishes look good with my hand planed surface.
I've also found that with planes that have adjustable throats, it's easy for the sliding part to get a slight edge or tiny dings that can leave marks. You sometimes have to dress them using rough sandpaper on a granite block to remove those little edge burrs.
Spoiler alert: Sanding had an edge..
Surface-Prep Shootout
A contest in the FWW shop reveals two great paths to a perfect finish
Asa Christiana #212–May/June 2010 Issue
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2010/04/08/surface-prep-shootout
Finishing with the sanding blocks interesting but overall I’m surprised the blades still that much faster
Great article btw thank you for sending it
I've read that article a couple of times. I think the results were more nuanced than that. If I recall, sanding had less issues with tear out than hand planes and that certainly supports your point. I do recall the "judges" thought that the hand planed surface by Pekovic looked subjectively better.
There is a follow up series on sanding (can't find it electronically but I have a print out at home) that looked at different grits and woods and finishes. My general take on that was to sand up to 600 grit on cherry so that oil finishes would look good.
I am not opposed to sanding though I prefer using a hand plane. I am in the process of making a mid sized piece of furniture out of cherry. There was a lot of undulating grain in it and tear out was a problem. It's taken a long time to make and will need to have the surface reprepared prior to finish. For that project, given it's size, and how difficult the grain was, I will sand progressively up to 600 grit.
Spagnuolo did a comparison video a few years ago where he compared the finish on a sanded board with one that was hand planed. As far as I know he still sands his projects. Has he gone to a hand plane finish?
He still sands it seems like even though he tended to prefer the planed look more - I’m sure some people just prefer sanding overall. If I’m doing anything cabinetry I’ll sand just for consistency and speed and only wanting to switch to blades for more fine furniture
A great starting point is "The Perfect Edge" by Ron Hock—covers sharpening and edge tools in depth. For scrapers and planes, check out Paul Sellers’ blog and YouTube—he explains how to tune and use cabinet scrapers and smoothing planes effectively. Your #4 can work beautifully with a fine setup, but a kanna can offer superb results once mastered. Cleaning up plane marks is often about blade sharpness and minimal depth—no need to jump to new tools unless you're after a specific feel.
Most of the time I finish surfaces by handplane. This is demanding with our Australian hardwoods, which generally have highly interlocked grain, but equally with US hardwoods, such as Hard Maple, which can change grain direction and then tear out spectacularly. Even Black Walnut has knots, and these involve grain direction changes. Consider the opposing grain direction when planing the intersection of book-matched panels.
There are two factors to be mastered when handplaning:
Firstly, the blade needs to be set to avoid track marks. This is done best by cambering the blade so the edges are below the surface. Look at the shavings to determine if they are feathering away at the sides.
Secondly, use the correct handplane set up. This is a either a high cutting angle (60 degrees), which may be via a bevel up handplne; or, better still (and my preference - see photos below), a closed up chipbreaker on a bevel down plane, such as the Stanley Bedrock #604 (photo below).
Thirdly, planing technique involves (1) depth of cut, (2), how the plane cut is started (how the plane enters the board) to avoid chattering marks, (3) overlaying cuts, and (4) of course reading the grain direction.
The photos below involve the preparation of a small panel. The long, straight shavings indicate a closed up chipbreaker. The edges if each shaving thin and fade away. The final photo is taken with raking light and reveals the absence of any track marks from the blade edges, along with a uniform finish.
Regards from Perth
Derek
I set my smoothers up with a slight camber so tracks are imperceptible. Prior to finish I always go over the surface with very fine paper or a Scotchbrite pad to make everything uniform.
I can certainly appreciate the difference in surface finish after "cutting" wood fibers with a sharp hand plane vs. "scratching" the surface with sandpaper. Finer grits only result in finer scratches, but they are still scratches that can't duplicate the cut surface obtained with a hand plane.
However, I've never understood the rationale for hand planing followed up with sanding. Why not just sand with progressively finer grits? Scratching/sanding will only dull the sheen of the hand planed surface.
Having said that, I must confess that I rarely use a hand plane to put a final surface on larger projects, since careful sanding will do a fine job. I do use hand planes to remove twist, fine tune glued up panels, etc. but I then usually follow up with sanding.
it's far faster even if you want to sand to finish to plane first or scrape first if a surface contour doesn't allow sanding. also far easier to avoid a very bland look that you can get at edge and corner details when you sand everything through a bunch of grits.
cheaper, too, but this isn't a hobby where cheap matters that much because even if supplies are cheap, no good wood will be.
For deeper insights, check out The Perfect Edge by Ron Hock and Handplane Essentials by Christopher Schwarz. Paul Sellers’ blog and YouTube channel also cover scraper and plane techniques well. A well-tuned #4 can work wonders, but exploring a kanna or a finely set #3 or #4½ is worthwhile too.
Just got a kanna plane for that exact reason, the setups intimidating but like with everything else I just need some time and practice to get comfortable with it
That Make Something dude is very secretive. Nowhere on his Utube page can he be identified by his real name. Explains why I never heard of him.