Sanding

[Boxmaker]

Hi everyone-

I have finished my red oak table, thanks to many on this forum for the great advice. I am new at this game an have much to learn. I want to attempt a mission style finish, and am planning on using Transtint dye followed by gel stain, basically following the Jeff Jewitt protocall.

My question (hopefully not too stupid) is this...

I have read different recommendations for the final sanding grit, 150 to 220 for example. I am wondering what difference this really makes? And, if it does make a significant difference, can I "unsand" to a courser grit to get the desired results if I have already sanded to a finer grit. I will do test pieces of course, but was wondering if anyone had input.

Thanks again for all of the help,

Tom

[PaulMarcel]

Jeff's Mission finish is nice; very easy to mix and apply. It's dye-based so it will seep into the wood pretty much regardless of the grit you finish with. With big open pores in Red Oak, the difference between ending at P150 or P220 is likely undetectable. On hard Maple, those grits will have visible differences, but not on the Red Oak.

[bois]

I've never heard of anyone needing to "unsand" to coarser grits though. I can't think of a good reason you would WANT to have bigger scratch marks. The only reason you'd really need to go beyond 220 grit on red oak is if you were filling the pores and wanted to do a higher gloss finish. Typically I go to at least 220 on anything that isn't paint grade, and for something like cherry I'll even go all the way to 1000 grit to minimize blotching. Even with something like oak, you'd be surprised how a dye or stain can highlight rough areas or noticeable scratch patterns that might not be visible to the naked eye otherwise. I always err on the side of caution, since going up one more grit typically isn't all that time consuming versus having to re-sand after applying a coat of finish.

Here are a few good cases where you want to sand to higher grits:

1) You're planning to use a gloss or hand rubbed finish

2) Closed pore wood like maple, or open pore wood like walnut or oak where you are using a pore filler.

3) To help fight blotching (like in cherry or birch)

4) Highly figured woods (areas where the grain is shifting often look blotchy with coarser grits).

5) You have a serious case of OCD like me, and over sand everything on pure compulsion.

[Darnell Hagen]

The final grit depends on two factors, the wood and the finish. When I'm working with red oak, I usually apply Watco followed by lacquer. Between the open pored coarse wood and the film finish I rarely sand finer than 120. Jeff recommends going to 180, I'd follow that considering his experience with that paticular dye/ stain combination. Generally speaking, 220 is fine enough for most jobs, and I rarely go higher than 320. You can sand too fine, burnishing the surface will affect the way a stain is absorbed and how much bite a pigment will get on a surface. It is certainly possible to "unsand" a surface, scratching a surface is way easier than trying to remove scratches!