Wood grit finish list....

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

I've been away from active making for a couple of years and finished my first of the year at the beginning of last month. Walnut scales were chosen and as I was looking through the threads on gunstock finish etc, I noticed one conversation that stated that it was really not needed or useful taking Walnut past a 600 grit finish.

I was wondering if there has been a list of woods and when it's wasted labour to continue sanding. I think this could help people not waste money/time/effort, as I probably would have taken the walnut to 1000 or so at least, but was very happy with the results at 600

Seen here (critiques welcome) both sides cut from the same piece of wood, I was surprised at some of the hidden rays that appeared:

So if walnut is best finished to 600 grit, is there rhyme or reason for other woods? I would assume chatoyant woods such as padauk, maple, koa, gidgee, snake wood etc are best at the 1500-2000 grit finish, while figured non chatoyant woods are better stopped lower? Such as cocobolo, spalted wood, zircote, bocote perhaps? Is in more of a species/family determination. I've read that certain woods only start to pop at high grit as well, so obviously do not want to stop too soon as well.

I'm looking to improve the quality of my finishes now that I'm back playing with making dust, but want to be efficient as well. I've taken the little snake wood handled knife I'm working on to 1500 so far, hopefully to do the wood Justice!

Any charts/lists/ideas are very welcome. I searched but only find the common threads of "what woods need stabilizing/What type of finish used" but nothing stating how different woods take different levels of sanding/prep.

My client showed up early so I have to go, but hope I've explained myself well!

 

[Burl Source]

My opinion is that you keep going until you like how the piece you are working with looks.
There can be a lot of variations in a type of wood so experimenting and watching what happens is a good thing.

 

[Frank Niro]

Good to see you back. The knife looks good ! For you it might be 600; for me 1000. I believe you if you just look at and decide is that's enough or not you will have your answers for all the materials you use.
Frank

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Thanks guys. That's what I tend to do anyways, but I'm pretty amateur with a lot of Marks awesome wood and want to do it justice (even though I must admit this is from an eBay purchase.... Shhh.... Don't tell Mark I'm cheating on him, although that Afzelia almost had me selling children!!)!

It was surprising to me that I never heard of a grit limit/limiting returns outside of that thread. I believe I took this to 800, then backed down to 600 with a slurry of TruOil starting at 400. Lots of little things to fix with that knife, but I had limited time, and I'm just happy to be creative again, never letting another person destroy my creativity again! This is my free mind time.

I just got in 1500&2000 grit paper so I'm exited to take koa etc that high in my next adventures!

 

[Ted01]

Higher grits also make the wood more smooth and slippery, so if you are going for a more grippy feel, you might want to stop at lower grits.

 

[Willie71]

If it's stabilized, you aren't limited to 600g. You are sanding the resin to a high polish. With unstabilized wood, after 600g with most domestics, you are burnishing, rather than sanding. Once you soak and cure some oil in the wood, you can sand finer. I sometimes wet sand with Danish oil up to 2000 or 2500g.

 

[Nic.]

With unstabilized walnut, here's what I do. Sand to 600 grit. Then get Danish or tru oil and put it on a piece of 1500 grit. Sand in nice small circles. It will make a slurry that fills all the pores in the wood and turned out really nice.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Its a game of diminishing returns based on the wood used. Can you sand any wood to any grit? You bet. And walnut or birch sanded to 800 is going to feel a little smoother than if it was taken to 600. But then the jump to say, 1000 or 1500 or 2500 is going to be a lot smaller.

What it comes down to is the fineness of the grain. Wood is essentially bundles of tubes. In general, the smaller each tube, the heavier and stronger the wood "there are certainly exceptions to this." But woods with much finer grains like cocobolo, African Blackwood, ebony, snakewood, satinwood, Kingwood and the like can be made much smoother than woods with more coarse grains structures like oak, cherry or walnut.

Stabilizing a wood is one way to make a more coarse grained wood able to take a high shine, as it essentially negates part of the effect of the tubes by filling them with resin.


So to answer your question in a round about way, you can sand anything to what ever grit you like. You will notice a higher shine and smoother feel with fine grained woods like ironwood, rosewoods and ebonies. Stabilized wood can also be sanded very high. Personally i take my exotics to 2500, but as you might have guess im a bit of a wood nerd.