How We Build a Rocking Chair — Sanding

If there were a short cut to a fine finish, we would take it.  But there isn't.  We spend 40% of our time sanding.

At various times in the process of chairmaking, we use coarse abrasives (36-100 grit) on stationary machines or hand-held power tools to aggressively remove material — more sculpting really than sanding.  Once the shapes are made, sanding to prepare the surface for finish begins.

Sanding scratches the surface.  We sand to produce scratches of a size and in a pattern that cannot be seen in the sheen of the final finish.  In my experience the scratches of 320-grit cannot be seen in open grain wood and the scratches of 400-grit cannot be seen in closed grain wood.  A surface with invisible scratches will be delightful to touch.

Getting from finished shape to finished surface takes so much time because there are so many steps.  Each step must remove the effects of the step before.  We remove the 100-grit scratches by leaving 180-grit scratches that are removed by 220-grit scratches that are removed by . . .

We use random orbit machine sanders for the 180 and 220-grit sandings  (#1 and #2).

We use paper in hand for the 320 and 400-grit sandings  (#3 and #4).

We sand between coats of finish as well.  But this is to open the previous coat of finish and to remove raised grain or finishing imperfections, not to prepare the wood surface.

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