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My uncle said I was over-sanding my maple face frames
He came by the shop last month, watched me for ten minutes, and said, 'You're taking off more wood than you're smoothing.' I switched to just three passes with 220 grit instead of my usual six, and the finish looks way better now. How do you know when to stop sanding on hardwoods?
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zarapalmer2d ago
My dad's old rule for sanding oak was to stop when the wood feels like a new baseball glove. That moment where it's smooth but still has some tooth to it. I see this everywhere now, like when you're stirring a sauce and just know it's thick enough, or editing a photo and removing one filter because it looked better before. We get caught in the loop of doing more, thinking it's better, when really we've already passed the good spot. Your uncle was right, you want to take off the rough stuff, not the wood itself.
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fisher.reese2d ago
That baseball glove rule is a perfect way to put it. I always wonder how you learn to trust that feeling instead of second-guessing. Is it just practice, or did your dad have other tricks to know when to stop?
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