If you’re interested in commissioning a piece of furniture, I highly recommend that you take the time to learn a little about the wood furniture making process as it will best help you to determine what you are looking for.

Have you ever wondered how furniture craftsmen create a perfectly smooth finish on wooden pieces? Typically, to help reveal the true beauty of a wood’s grain, woodworkers will either sand it, scrape it or use hand planes to arrive at that smooth wood finish. Let me take a moment to offer you a quick overview of these techniques:

Source: Woodford Woodworking Tools and Machines UK. via Pinterest

Sanding

You’ve probably used sandpaper at some point in your life, and if so, you know that it will create a surface filled with number of microscopic grooves and slightly fuzzy edges. When using this technique, it’s necessary to sand to a grit finer than 600 for light to penetrate the torn fibers to help bring out the grain of the wood.

Scraping

This technique refers to using a burr or a sharpened blade to tear wood fibers and works best on hardwoods. An advantage of scraping over sanding is that it works as fast as a 60-grit paper for removing wood, but leaves a finish like a 400-grit paper.

Handplanes

A hand plane offers a sharpened metal blade attached that is attached to a firm body and is moved over a wood surface to provide a relatively constant angle to the cutting edge and eventually arrive at a surface that is smooth and flat.

In my experience, I’ve had the opportunity to use a number of different types of wood smoothing techniques and will be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have. Contact me to learn more about commissioning a piece of furniture and what to consider.