Sanding: The Step Most People Skip

Sanding is slow, dusty, and invisible when it’s done well. In our workshop it takes up more time than any other step, and it’s the step we’d least want anyone to rush.

Why it matters for safety

A finish follows the surface underneath it. Any scratch, torn fibre or raised grain becomes a valley the coating has to bridge. That’s where the seal is likely to be thinnest, and where it will fail first. A smooth surface underneath means an even, continuous seal on top.

Our progression

Each grit’s only job is to remove the scratches left by the one before it. Skip a step and the deeper scratches stay, just polished over. This is the progression we use:

120 → 180 → 240 → 320 → 400 → 600 → 800 → 1000, then finer abrasives and polishing for the densest woods.

Between grits we stop the lathe and check under a low raking light, which shows every remaining scratch. Then we wipe the piece down so coarse grit can’t contaminate the finer stages.

Raising the grain

After the mid grits, we lightly dampen the surface and let it dry. Loose fibres stand up, and we sand them off so they can’t lift later under the finish.

Why we go to 1000+ grit

By that point the bare wood already feels almost glassy, before any coating goes on. The finish then only has to protect the surface, not fill it. On a dense wood like the ebony in our Nocturne, the result is a true mirror polish.