Aaron’s New Akua (Done!) - Tiki Carving

B Benzart Member Port Saint Lucie, Florida Joined: Jan 09, 2004 Posts: 10397	B Benzart Posted posted on Wed, Oct 6, 2004 2:56 PM YES, Thats dedication, I Love it. You are OK with the grits. Your progression is the proper way but you can get away with 60, 100, then 220 if you are using a power sander. What you are doing is Scratching the surface with a series of particular sized scratches, or Grooves. The idea is to keep goung smaller and smaller in the grit or Scratch size until you can no longer notice the scratches or grooves. If you get into the 2000 range you have scratches that are so small they cannot be seen without magnification.. IF you skip grits then you are polishing only the Tops of the grooves and thay still show.. Like I can sharpen a chisel starting with 100 grit and then polish it with 1000. I will end up with a mirror finish 6100 grit set of grooves and the chisel tho looking sharp, will be very dull. So, Everyone Hates sanding, yours truly included, but you gotta do it if you want the piece to look good. All the nooks and cranneys are important too. try sanding with a magnifier over your eyes and sand until it looks good, then you will be done. NOW having said all that, for an outside tiki made from Palm, it doesn't have to be as smoothe as a table top tiki that will be touched and looked at closley all the time. It's a judgement call depending on the piece and its intended use. Sanding between coats gets rid of surface imperfections and again it depends on the piece. The FINER the piece, the more you sand between coats. Sanding removes the Orange peel look and thins the applied finish so that it does not look 10 inches thick. For that Fine piece you don't want it to look like you poured the varnish on. I wouldn't hose off the inbetween dust. You can make a tack cloth from diluted varnish or shellack and coating a lint free rag with it and wringing it out till its damp. Use that after you blow or brush off the main dust to get it all. Usually in the finishing THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS. One more thing, Grits are better with eggs and bacon!! [ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-10-10 19:49 ]

YES, Thats dedication, I Love it.
You are OK with the grits. Your progression is the proper way but you can get away with 60, 100, then 220 if you are using a power sander. What you are doing is Scratching the surface with a series of particular sized scratches, or Grooves. The idea is to keep goung smaller and smaller in the grit or Scratch size until you can no longer notice the scratches or grooves. If you get into the 2000 range you have scratches that are so small they cannot be seen without magnification.. IF you skip grits then you are polishing only the Tops of the grooves and thay still show.. Like I can sharpen a chisel starting with 100 grit and then polish it with 1000. I will end up with a mirror finish 6100 grit set of grooves and the chisel tho looking sharp, will be very dull. So, Everyone Hates sanding, yours truly included, but you gotta do it if you want the piece to look good. All the nooks and cranneys are important too. try sanding with a magnifier over your eyes and sand until it looks good, then you will be done. NOW having said all that, for an outside tiki made from Palm, it doesn't have to be as smoothe as a table top tiki that will be touched and looked at closley all the time. It's a judgement call depending on the piece and its intended use.
Sanding between coats gets rid of surface imperfections and again it depends on the piece. The FINER the piece, the more you sand between coats. Sanding removes the Orange peel look and thins the applied finish so that it does not look 10 inches thick. For that Fine piece you don't want it to look like you poured the varnish on. I wouldn't hose off the inbetween dust. You can make a tack cloth from diluted varnish or shellack and coating a lint free rag with it and wringing it out till its damp. Use that after you blow or brush off the main dust to get it all. Usually in the finishing THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS.

One more thing, Grits are better with eggs and bacon!!

[ Edited by: Benzart on 2004-10-10 19:49 ]

Post #118427 by Benzart on Wed, Oct 6, 2004 2:56 PM