JB97031 Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 I'm new to the whole wood working process. I decided to refinish a 5' x 8' slab of walnut, put legs on it and make it into my new dining room table. I've done a couple of other tops out of walnut where I sanded and then finished them with urethane. They look fine to the average eye. This slab is very figured with a lot of marble and curl and has the potential to be stunning - as long as I don't screw it up. So I really want to do things right when it comes to finishing off the top. I've been practicing on the bottom side of the table so far to get it ready to be sealed and have the legs put on. It had a lot of saw checking, so I sanded it down with my belt sander. Then I re-sanded with with a half sheet sander with 60, 80, 100,150, 180 and 220 grits. I then hand sanded again with 220 and 320. Getting ready now to put a sealer coat of either Waterlux or dewaxed shellac, then grain filler. Will finish with three coats or so of Waterlux. In my reading today I came across some posts that talked about using a hand scraper because this really brought out the figure of the walnut. Is this a safe process for a complete newbie to do? Does it really bring out the marble and curl of the wood vastly better than sanding it the way I have so far? Is it practical to hand scrap such a large slab? Please advise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morton Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 Personally, I wouldn't sweat the difference unless you really cared to try some samples and look side-by-side. In my experience on test finishing or finish process - yes, there can be a slight difference in final appearance based on application or prep - but it's usually pretty small and noticeable mostly in a side-by-side. Much more important is the prep like you've described above. Really going through your grits in progression and taking it to a pretty high grit#. Surface prep is really important to the way the final piece looks. I wouldn't sweat the scraping/sanding difference unless that seemed like a cool test to you (it might Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AceHoleInOne Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 To my eye, sanding figured woods to a high grit looks the same as scraped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morton Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 It was funny this was posted this morning as I actually did a test today on handplaned-only versus hand planed-then-sanded (600 then 1200) -- on curly maple. I couldn't tell the difference on the very small test piece with a couple of different finish types. Except the 1200 sanded feels much smoother running my hand over it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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