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Sanding & Finishing Your Woodworking Job

Ask any professional woodworker and he will tell you that there is nothing so difficult about woodworking. There are essentially three basic things you have to understand. First you will have to understand how to cut slices of wood to shape, second you need to know how to fit them together, the last thing you have to know is smoothing and finishing the wood to give the item you are making a good look. Easy, true, but it will take you a lifetime to fully master these 3 basic steps. This write up focuses on the last stage of the woodworking process which is sanding and finishing.

Even though this is the concluding stage of any wood working assignment, the truth is that it can be split into to two parts. First there is the sanding, a process which involves smoothing the wood so as to get rid of any rough edges or blemishes. Keep in mind that any slight blemish or defect in your wood is going to become much more obvious when you are through with the process of sanding and finishing by applying varnish, polish or wax.

You can choose from several different methods to sand & smooth your wood. But there are three major methods:

A. Sandpaper – you will most likely make use of sandpaper to smooth your piece of wood. Sandpaper has different grades based on the grain size on the paper. With higher numbers you get smaller grains and you will achieve finer finish as the grains get smaller. When dealing with a task, ensure that the sandpaper you use is of the right grade. Usually you have to begin with a grade that’s coarse to clean the really bad marks, before you move on to a grade that’s finer.

B. Wire Wool – sometimes Wire Wool is referred to as steel wool and it is mainly employed when you want a finish that is finer than is possible with even a sandpaper of the finest grade. Wire wool can be very good with some kinds of oily wood; because you will get such a really smooth surface that you will not need to use any additional polish or varnish.

C. Cabinet Scraper – this apparatus is not as popular as the first two, but a woodworker will find it really useful. The typical cabinet scraper is a rectangular piece of pliable tempered steel. As their name suggests they are used at the start of the finishing procedure to graze down the surfaces of the furniture pieces to get rid of blotches or little tears on the wood. You can also get them in curved shapes which can be used to easily finish curved surfaces like mouldings.

After sanding and smoothing the surfaces of the wood, the last thing you have to do to make a wonderful looking wood is to apply the finish. When selecting your finish you should be aware that the look of the wood will be altered by the finish, and it may not be possible for you to evaluate the extent of that alteration by observing the tin. Therefore it is a good idea to first test the polish, wax or varnish that you plan to use on any waste wood before proceeding. You may try 2 or 3 different colors to be certain that the best look is what you’ll get.