Sanding question

[Jim Dunn]

In school I was taught to sand with the grain. (nearly flunked out of shop class cause I couldn't get along with the teacher, that's a whole nother story)

Any way, I have some highly, for me anyway, figured hard maple and the grain runs every which way. How do you sand this to get the best finish? Use something higher than 220grit or use a rdorbit sander?

[Peter Quadarella]

I don't pay too much attention to the grain when using my ROS, so that should work.

[Jay Jolliffe]

You have to go further than 220 with a ros if your going to stain it. Even if you not staining you see little swirl marks if you don't go to 320 grit or 400. I made that mistake. Looked really nice & smooth then I used Water Lox as a finish & you still could see swirl marks from the sander in places.

[Sam Yerardi]

On figured stock I sand with the direction of the grain, and that usually means following it into circles, etc. A ros works also.

[Jim Becker]

Use the ROS for most of your sanding and when you do your final rub down with paper by hand, keep things moving in the general direction of the actual grain of the wood...the direction the tree grows. You should be at pretty fine abrasive at that point. If this is a piece that you must hand sand due to contours, take extra care and don't skip any grits. You should also clean the surface between abrasive changes to insure that broken off grit that is coarser than you are using doesn't scratch the piece. I wipe down with mineral spirits on a soft, lint-free paper towel for that.

[Greg Cole]

Mineral spirits and a raking light will show any swirls etc left from machine sanding (or spots where hand sanding went across any grain too). If you see any swirls, back up a grit or two and make'em disappear...then proceed up to your desired finish grit.
FWIW, maple doesn't finish as well if you want to impart color if you sand "too finely" on the wood, save the finer grits for use between coats of finish.
Cheers.
Greg

[Jim Dunn]

Thanks everyone for the fine information. I've never had the opportunity to work with any wood that had as wild a grain pattern as this.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=78527

[Howard Acheson]

Surprised no one mentioned it but I only use a sharp scraper for highly figured wood. No need to worry about "swirls".

[Greg Cole]

Howard,
I bit my tongue on that..... but card a card scraper is one heckuva finishing tool! Truly some of the best $ spent for anyone who wants to raise the bar on their finishing regimen-schedule.

Greg

[Jim Dunn]

Surprised no one mentioned it but I only use a sharp scraper for highly figured wood. No need to worry about "swirls".

I actually used a Stanley #80 scraper and had good results. But it had a tendency to not be as smooth as sanding. It could be my abilities with the scraper.

[Jim Dunn]

I got a little finish put on the top tonight. First of many? coats of wipe on poly.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=80317