Final Finish Planing

[Guest]

I'm prepping the carcase of a double chest of drawers I'm building for the finish. It's curly and tiger maple. Instead of sanding through the grits, I'm planing the workshop grunge, pencil marks, dings, etc., off and hoping for a surface I can finish off the plane. I expected to have to do some final sanding, but it turns out to be unnecessary. I've had almost no tearout on the curly or striped pieces. Every time I use my Norris A5, I love it more.



I've generated a pretty respctable pile of fluffy shavings.

[barryvabeach]

Hank, i find the heft of a Norris to be great as well. Glad the project is coming out well.

[Strokes77]

Do some checking to make sure your chosen finish will stick to that surface. I've heard rumors that some finishes don't adhere well to perfectly planed pieces.

Can anyone elaborate on that?

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip. I've never had that problem, but I'd hate to have it crop up on this project.

[JR1]

You might want to use KUSMI SEED-LAC or Thai Seed lac The Thai seed is more red but it's easy o get the exact color that you want by adding transtint to the shellac. It will really pop the grain. I frequently go straight from planing to finish, but for some finishes (particularly waterborne) a quick scuff sand with 120 improves appearance. I'd be tempted to just apply three 1# coats of shellac and let it go, unless it's for a guest room or kids room.
Do test and see what you like.

[Guest]

Thanks, JR. The frame of the chest is soft maple and the panels and drawer fronts are hard curly maple. There is a slight color variation between the two. My finishing plan is to give the soft maple a coat or two of Seal Coat tinted with transrint to give it some warmth to match the hard maple. It ill also accent the figure. I will probably also seal the hard maple with Seal Coat without the tint to pop the curl a little, although I don't think it's necssary. I've never had trouble getting shellac to adhere to a planed surface. The final finish will be wipe-on poly because it's easy and doesn't look bad. It's also tough. This isn't going to be a pice of fine furniture. My kids wanted me to build it out of plywood, but I drew the line there and used solid maple instead. Thanks for tour suggestions.

[JR1]

I have only had adherence problems with zinsser not real shellac. The folks I know who have real problems with zinsser don't apply a 1# cut but often a 2 or eve 3# cut. Those are just too thick to work. If you want you can use this technique .

[wmickley]

Strokes77 said:

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Do some checking to make sure your chosen finish will stick to that surface. I've heard rumors that some finishes don't adhere well to perfectly planed pieces.

Can anyone elaborate on that?

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I have been putting finishes on hand planed (unsanded) surfaces since 1978. It is not a problem.

Warren

[MichaelMouse]

Strokes77 said:

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Do some checking to make sure your chosen finish will stick to that surface. I've heard rumors that some finishes don't adhere well to perfectly planed pieces.

Can anyone elaborate on that?

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Sure. With open pores - not packed with dust - the wood provides a great surface for a finish. Don't have to "whisker" it like a sanded surface, and there's almost no dust even in the first coat.

It's burnished wood, a product of heat from sanding, that rejects oil finishes.

[Strokes77]

Thanks all.