Note to Parents
Sanding wood can produce a lot of
dust. Sometimes you don’t even
realize how much until you look
around and everything is covered in a
film of dust. This dust is also being
breathed in and can cause damage to
your lungs. Wearing a dust mask is a
simple thing to do to protect yourself.
They can be found inexpensively at
most home improvement warehouses.
Wearing a dust masks is especially
important if your child has allergies
and/or asthma. Consult your
physician if your child has any
breathing problems.
Things You’ll Need
Sandpaper in the following
grits: 80, 100, 120, 150,
and, 180.
Brushes: Natural and
synthetic
Pick a finish or two you
want to try
Dust mask
A project or two that you’ve
completed and want to
finish or just some scrap
wood to practice on.Lesson 8
Finishing
Finishing a project is just that, finishing it. But here we’re talking about
what you do to a project once all the building is complete to make it look
nice and to protect the wood. You have many options to choose from
depending on what you want the final project to look like and what it
will be used for. Don’t worry we’ll help you choose the best one.Sanding
No matter which finishing process you choose, they all
have one thing in common, sanding. Actually, that last
statement isn’t entirely true. Furniture makers have not
always had sandpaper to prepare the wood’s surface
for finish. So what did they use? Hand planes did the
job for craftsmen for hundreds of years before the
invention of sandpaper. Hand planes, bigger than the
block plane we looked at earlier, create a very smooth
surface and if done skillfully, can leave a better looking
surface than sandpaper can. So why doesn’t everyone
still use hand planes? Because using hand planes well
takes practice. It’s not that they’re hard to learn but it
does take time. Sandpaper is much easier to learn to use. Hopefully in a
future book we’ll look at using hand planes because it’s a skill that’s
worth learning.Sanding can be done by hand or with machines
like orbital sanders. Orbital sanders can remove a
lot a wood quickly but they can blow a lot of dust
into the air too. We’ll just be looking at hand
sanding in this lesson because it’s the best place to
start. Almost all projects require some hand