plane mark showing

[aliebling]

Working on a bench of walnut and cherry.  It's my first project attempting to finish with a smoothing plane instead of sanding.  It went well (the cherry was tougher, but the walnut smoothed like butter) and I moved on to finishing.  Unfortunately, as soon as I put on a layer of tung oil a ton of previously invisible plane marks suddenly popped.  These are not tracks (the plane blade is rounded so the corners don't catch) but rather horizontal marks where (I think) I started a stroke midboard.

 

When I was smoothing, I was getting nice shavings maybe 2/1000th of an inch thick.  I had occasional track marks, but went back over them to clean them up.  Everything felt very smooth to the hand.

 

I'm sure it's a technique issue on my part: either I need to take finer shavings or maybe I just need to make sure I finish with full length shavings so there are no midboard starting marks.

 

Thoughts or advice?

[RichardA]

Use a scraper as your final tool.

[Mark J]

And wipe down the wood surface with mineral spirits to check for marks before applying finish.

[aliebling]

When you scrape, do you scrape the whole surface is just where marks are showing?

[Tpt life]

30 minutes ago, aliebling said:

When you scrape, do you scrape the whole surface is just where marks are showing?

This depends on the difference you see in the finish. If scraping is giving you a different finish, do the whole thing for uniformity. This will really depend on the finish schedule, however. Some finishes benefit from mechanical “toothing.” This means once you get flat, a quick sanding may be in order. In this work flow, planing minimizes sanding...but does not eliminate it. 

[curlyoak]

After plane work is done you have a choice. Scrape or sand. Most people today sand. Scraping has been around before sandpaper I think. Scrape in the right hands can be a very good surface to finish. The foundation of good scrape work is knowing how to sharpen the scraper. Good luck

[Ronn W]

I agree with the above with this ad ded thought.  I have seen fine old pices of furniture where, if you lok at the right angle   wyou can wee that the surface was finished with a plane and scraper,  This is not to say that you need to settle for visible plane ro scraper marks if you don't want them but in this age of machine made everything, sometimes we forget that surfaces way back when were less that perfect.  Some inor imperfections say that " this was handmade."

[Chestnut]

I plane and don't scrape or sand i honestly feel that scrapers leave an inferior surface to a well sharpened smoother. Full length stokes will solve the problem, I've also been able to feather in and have made half strokes work. It takes some trial and error to figure out the technique.

I don't know how glaring the marks are but when looking close you'll be able to find small minor plane marks on all of my recent furniture. Like leaving the knife line on dovetails, I appreciate them as they are a testament to being made lovingly by hand with hand tools. I'm not shooting to put machines out of business. I shoot to do something they can't, put soul into my projects.