[railaw]

So I took a woodworking class a couple of years ago and made a walnut jewelry box for the mrs. I never got around to finishing, partly because the lid, which was scraped and then run over with 320 emery cloth, had a few spots that needed touching up. Over the last couple of years I managed to buy a scraper. The it took a while to get a burnisher then I tried sharpening t a couple times and got mediocre results. I tried scraping the spot I thought needed to extra attention , bu it stuck out even more than before. So I finally got some 320 grit sand paper and just tried to sand it. Now there are scratches all up and down the lid and it looks worse than ever. I even tried a 600 wet dry paper I had sitting there and it made it smooth to the touch but didn't get rid of the scratches. I don't need this to be perfrct but I understand that finish will show up these things. here are a couple of pics. I hope you can see what I'm talking about. Any suggestions? I'm desperate here as I can't do anything else until I get this done

 

[Steve Neul]

I'm not sure what I'm seeing in the pictures. It looks like there are still planer marks in the wood. When you sand the wood you should start with a coarser paper than 320. With 320 grit you are more polishing the wood than sanding. I would start over. Assuming the wood was never belt sanded and you are sanding by hand I would first sand the wood with 80 grit sandpaper always sanding with the grain. When you get the mill marks out then sand with 100 grit, then wet the wood with water and let dry, then sand with 150 grit and wet the wood again, then 180 grit. This should be enough but if you are using an oil finish I would wet the wood again and sand again with 220 grit. Wetting the wood raises the grain and makes the sanding you do more effective.

 

[railaw]

I'm not sure what I'm seeing in the pictures. It looks like there are still planer marks in the wood. When you sand the wood you should start with a coarser paper than 320. With 320 grit you are more polishing the wood than sanding. I would start over. Assuming the wood was never belt sanded and you are sanding by hand I would first sand the wood with 80 grit sandpaper always sanding with the grain. When you get the mill marks out then sand with 100 grit, then wet the wood with water and let dry, then sand with 150 grit and wet the wood again, then 180 grit. This should be enough but if you are using an oil finish I would wet the wood again and sand again with 220 grit. Wetting the wood raises the grain and makes the sanding you do more effective.

Those are not planer marks but the open grain pattern. I see what you mean in the picture but in person you can see that they're not.

Like I said, the top was well-scraped in the class then gone over lightly with 320 emery cloth. There has never been sand paper lower than 320 grit on it. It tried to get out a couple of poor scrapes with a poorly sharpened scraper, which made matters worse. Then I tried 320 grit sandpaper, which left very visible scratches running I guess across the grain- it is a semicircular grain pattern so it's hard to say what's "across". There were no scratches before the 320 grit, only a couple marks from the scraper. I can't understand why the 320 left so many marks when it hadn't the first time I used it. Perhaps type of sandpaper makes a difference?? I don't want to start from a low frit as that want necessary in the first place. I only want to undo what I just did. Can anyone see the scratches I'm talking about in the pics?

 

[Steve Neul]

The 320 grit paper itself won't scratch the wood. If anything it revealed something that was there you couldn't see before. It wouldn't hurt anything to wipe the wood down with mineral spirits. The way it would look wet is how it would look like with a finish on it. If there is still something there objectionable then you could decide if it needs more sanding.

 

[cabinetman]

Looks to me like machine marks of some type. Maybe edge imperfections in the scraper. I would use a ROS, starting with 100x, and finishing with 150x.

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