Replies

1. 
   Glaucon | Apr 30, 2005 05:14am | #1

   You will likely receive a blizzard of information in response to your post-  The short answer is, some (myself included) feel that a planed and scraped surface is superior to one that is sanded.  Sanding tends to abrade the surface, tearing the wood fibers.  If you try to sand beyond say 220 to improve this problem, you end up burnishing the fibers, and they don't take up finish well.

   I joint and thickness my boards on power tools mainly.  When I am ready to finish I will smooth the wood with a smoothing plane- a LN 4 1/2.  This has a very sharp and tuned iron, and the throat is kept tight so that the shavings that come off are very thin and wispy.  If the wood is highly figured (eg birdseye), I'll use a York or high angle frog.  I start usually diagonal to the grain and get rid of any tool marks.  I finish with the grain.  Depending upon the wood (maple and cherry especially), the surface takes on an almost luminous appearance.  I'll do my final smoothing with a freshly burnished card scraper.  It's actually not hard to learn this technique, and you are taking off so little at a time that you aren't liable to do much damage in the learning.  Compared to sanding, it may actually take less time (then going through all the grits), it's less messy, and I'd much rather be covered with fluffy shavings than wood dust (hard to inhale wood shavings).  There are some areas where you may need to sand (tight areas), and I still sand between (and sometimes during) finish coats.

   Anyway, just my 2p...

   Glaucon

   If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...

1. 
   WillGeorge | May 01, 2005 04:57pm | #3

   feel that a planed and scraped surface is superior to one that is sanded..

   I just love my cabinet scrapers!

2. 
   Peter36 | May 01, 2005 02:51am | #2

   Hello Jeff. Opinions vary but after my machining is done I hand plane and that is it. A scraper leaves a poorer surface than planning does and sand paper I only use on profiled areas. A 45* or higher plane is the best tool to use. A smoother like a #4 is the most appropriate but any tool will work. The smoothers are most appropriate because they are short and will follow any irregularities unlike a jointer plane that will remove high spots. A jack is a good size if you are only wanting 1 plane but it is slightly large for smoothing although it will do the exact same job as a smoother.                 Peter

1. 
   Glaucon | May 01, 2005 05:31pm | #4

   >A scraper leaves a poorer surface than planning does<

   Disagree.  I find that a properly tuned cabinet scraper (burnished to a good hook) works like a smoother- you get shavings, not dust.  It's particularly useful working in tight spots and to tie together planed surfaces.Glaucon

   If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...

1. 
   Peter36 | May 04, 2005 09:35pm | #5

   "A planed finish will always be preferable to a scraped finish" -Thomas Lie Nielsen. If your scraper is outperforming your plane on non figured wood the trouble may lie in your plane.

1. 
   Glaucon | May 04, 2005 11:43pm | #6

   Thom is entitled to his opinion (he sells scrapers as well as planes)- and so are you.

   ;^)

    

    Glaucon

   If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...