Oak Sanding Disaster

[Prashun Patel]

What am I missing?

Why don't you just sand it (whatever it is) out with a different brand of 100grit? Also, I imagine you're not going to stop @ 100. keep working up in grits and see if the coloring goes away. My guess is it's grit that's been ground into the pores. Sanding will level the top layer of pores and open them up so the grit can escape.

You also haven't mentioned whether you plan to dye/stain this. If yr staining it dark, it really won't matter in the end.

I wouldn't resort to planing/bleaching/wire brushing until you've determined that additional sanding doesn't solve the problem.

Last, how hard were you pressing with yr ROS? It took me a long time to learn to let the paper - not the pressure - do the work. I also try to remember the advice: "use sandpaper like someone else is paying for it". Working the same paper too long makes me push harder, and leads to all kinds of probs for the piece and the ROS.