I am new to this forum so this may be a topic that has been discussed before. After planing wood what is the best way to prepare the wood for finishing. Will you get a better result scraping off a thin layer to remove the planer marks or is sanding the better way to go (course to fine). OR should it be a combination of the 2.
Thanks
Replies
Ski-7,
You'll get various opinions on this. My method to remove the mill marks from the planer is to use a cabinet scraper: the type held in a frame, adjustable for depth with a thumb screw, not the hand held card scraper. It's about as fast as a belt sander, but less noise and dust. Then follow up with fine grit sandpaper in a random orbit sander. GP
I agree with gp. In my book the less sanding and sanding dust, the better. (Keep in mind that with serious reproduction work sanding is usually a no-no anyway.) As pointed out in a previous post, sandpaper dulls the sheen left by finish planing and scraping - something to do with the action of the abrasive which tears the wood fibres rather than cutting them.
Jeff
Ski,
Your correct, there are a lot of opinions on this and they are all good. I'm getting away from sanding at all and just scraping with the card scaper. However, I'm trying to get to the point where the planes do all the finish preperation. The experts on here can speak to the techniques, I'm still learning and don't want to mislead. The difference in the depth of finish is significant when just planed, but it does require skill to modify the shape of the plane blade and adjusting the mouth of the plane.
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