Just realized I've been using the wrong grit sequence for pre-finish sanding

Overheard a guy at the woodworking supply shop in Austin say he skips 120 and goes straight from 100 to 150 on maple... tried it this morning and the finish laid down way smoother with less sand-through risk. Anyone else adjust their sanding grits for different wood types?

2 comments

2 Comments

shane_morgan6d agoTop Commenter

That's interesting about skipping 120... did you notice any extra tear-out on the maple with the 100 grit before moving to 150? I've always been too scared to skip a grit on hardwoods, especially figured stuff, but maybe I'm overthinking it. Maple can be fussy though, right? Curious if you had to spend more time with the 100 to get the scratches out, or if it blended in fine.

jackson.max5d ago

...and here I was thinking my sanding OCD was bad enough that I had to hit every grit from 80 to 400 on pine. Actually tried the 100-to-150 skip on some cherry last week and yeah, I spent like an extra 30 seconds with the 100 to make sure the scratches were even, but it worked fine (no tear-out on mine, just had to check with my fingernail). Maple's a diva though, so maybe your guy just got lucky or had really good light in his shop.