I finished a piece of wood as a test the other day. It shouldn’t have worked, but it looks great! Here’s what I did:
The other day I was sanding a piece of baltic birch plywood to make a drawer insert for router bits (grid of 1/4″ holes). The ply was kinda grungy dirty so I sanded it to clean it up. Before you knew it I was sanding with 400 grit before wiping on minwax satin rubbing poly.
Have you ever heard of Micro Mesh? Personally, I love the stuff. It lasts forever and hardly clogs at all. I’ve used the same piece of paper on 4 pieces so far. ANYWAY, I don’t know why, but I started going through the micro mesh and sanding/polishing the bare wood all the way up to 8000 grit MicroMesh material BEFORE wiping on the polyurethane. The plywood looked like it had a high polish all on its own. I then wiped on a few coats of satin (yes, SATIN) polyurethane and WOW. I got a fastastic deep rich luster/shine that is incredible, as well as amazing chatoyance that I would have never guessed out of birch ply! I applied 5 coats total.
Now, everything I’ve ever heard says never sand beyond 320 before applying a finish. Everything finer will prevent the finish from adhering properly. I must say, the poly is sticking just fine, and looks great.
My question is: Has anyone else ever done this? What was your experience? Is this one of those ancient finisher secrets that you’re all hiding from us new guys so we won’t compete for your customers? Kidding- but feedback would be great. Does this technique really work as well as it seems, does it work with other finishes?
Thanks, Kevin
Replies
To check if it's really stuck, try making an x with a fresh Xacto knife, put masking tape over it and burnish with a blunt tool handle. Peel the tape. If the finish doesn't lift you're in like Flint. If it works, do it.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
For applying a brush-on or spray on finish that is going to result in a significant thickness, sanding beyond 320 is worthless. The only surface that's important then is the surface of the film.
When applying any kind of hand rubbed-in, rubbed-on finish such as oil, oil/varnish, wiping varnish where the film is extremely thin and the surface of the wood greatly affects the visual result, I have found that sanding to at least 400, if not 600 makes a world of difference in the final appearance. That's why such finishes are so beautiful on tropical hardwoods- they polish so well. But any wood looks better fine sanded for such finishes. In my humble opinion.
Rich
You can sand as high as you want on items that won’t be stained. Oils and film type finishes will bond to the smoothest wood, since on a microscopic level the wood is still quite rough. Stains won’t work as well or at least they won’t turn out as dark on finely sanded wood, especially a dense wood (like maple). I don't ever sand higher than 320, but I also never use oil finishes, which could benefit from higher grits.
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