Slats & Finish Prep: Sanding vs. planing?

[Texfire]

This might be an ignorant question, but would this project have been one where a planed surface would have been an alternative to sanding? Would there be any advantage to doing that way or does the inclusion of curves and roundovers in the design make the prospect of using planes for stock prep a nightmare?

I have no experience with hand planes, so I have only a fairly fuzzy concept on where it can be used to great effect. Up till now, I just sand the heck out of everything. But I'm hoping this question might spark a discussion that I can learn from.

Josh

[rihacker]

The planning was ok for mine but i sanded it to 220 so that the areas you were touching were silky smooth and comfortable. If you plane the figures in the wood are more prominent which can make things look really nice.

How lazy do you want to be

[thewoodwhisperer]

You could certainly go all neanderthal for finish prep if you wanted to. A smoothing plane or scraper on the flat surfaces and a spokeshave or scraper on the curved surfaces. But I do think you would still want to go over the surface with a little sandpaper for absolute final smoothing of all those angles and curves.

[Texfire]

So the main difference would be a more pronounced figure? I suspect the curves would give me quite a lot of difficulty. I've been reading Tolpin's "New Traditional Woodworker" and some of it resonates with me, so I'm considering a more hybrid approach when it would benefit a project.