Whether it is a piece you have repaired, an unfinished piece you have brought or one you have built from new, (so long as it has no finish to remove) preparation of the wood for the final finish coats consists mainly of fine sanding.

Sanding good timber is one of the real pleasures of furniture, carpentry and building work. Each timber has its distinctive aroma and feel, and as you work the surface down with finer and finer papers you will thoroughly enjoy the smooth sleekness of the wood and the basic beauty as the quality of the piece is revealed. It is the feel of that unfinished timber that is the first reward for your work.

Sanding is done with cabinet grade finishing papers, which are number graded. These grades are usually;

• Course - ranging from 40-150 grade.
• Medium - ranging from 150-240 grade.
• Fine - ranging from 240-400 grade.
• Super Fine - ranging from 400-2400 grade.

Remember the higher the number the finer the paper, so work progressively to finer papers after beginning with paper no coarser than necessary to eliminate tool marks, fine scratches and the marks left from repair. Usually, this means beginning with a courser grade paper and moving towards finer papers. Since you are working for pleasure and not for payment, try going on to the super fine grades that will give you that last perfect touch of the master tradesmen. This produces so fine a surface, that the wood is as smooth as though it were coated.

Note: Each finer paper in the series is designed to remove the lines produced by the cutting action of the abrasive particles on the paper used previously. Sand in the direction of the grain with the papers running from medium to fine. The super fine papers can be used across the grain where absolutely necessary. Do not use any real pressure. The papers are designed to cut by a simple process of movement under minimal pressure.

Pieces to be finished clear will only look as beautiful and masterfully done as the time you send sanding and preparing the surface. Every extra stroke of fine paper that removes the smallest cross-grain scratch, every minute of additional time invested in sure straight passes with the grain to eliminate all marks except those of the finest paper as seen under a magnifying glass will be the determining factor in the quality of your work. No piece is any better than its preparation.

Anyone can apply a finish, but dedicated artists and craftsmen take the time to sand, sand and sand until the surface is flawless, just as they must polish certain finishes until flawless. No matter how much work goes into the clear finish over wood that has scratches or inferior labour saving sanding, it can never look good.

For badly damaged or rough surfaces, when you start to sand with course grade sand papers, sand across the grain, this will cut the defects out quickly, then with the same grade sand with the grain removing the scratches.

Can you sand straight? It's quite a challenge to make your arm follow a straight line, one of the few frontiers for modem man to whip. It is like ironing, only much more rewarding.

Joints you have re-glued or spots you have filled with wood splines or chips will seal tightly and look like flawless matched inlays when you burnish the joint. Do this before the finer sanding. Take a piece of hard wood such as maple or birch. Smooth it off to make a surface like a pad. Press it over the area as if ironing until it makes the wood shine. This compresses the wood and forces it to mash together.

Check and examine the piece as you sand. Patch remaining minor flaws with the appropriate coloured wood filler. Very small patches of this kind will dry almost at once and while you are sanding another area will set hard.

For that final artistic touch for clear finishes (after the final finish sanding), rub down the wood with a pad made of unfinished, unstained leather wrapped around a block. Rub hard until the wood is warm. This burnishing presses out fine lines and hardens the surface to produce an unexcelled wood surface.

If you have a lathe and are working with maple or birch turnings, you can finish the turning by burnishing carefully with leather or flannel. Be careful not to burn or char the wood. Done to the right degree, this produces an amber tone and hard finish that gives a transparent appearance to the wood surface. This is followed by burnishing a mixture of one part varnish and three parts thinner into wood until dry.