Finally realized I was sanding in the wrong direction for 2 years

I was refinishing a table last weekend and kept getting these weird scratches that wouldn't come out no matter how fine of grit I used. My dad walked over, looked at it for like 5 seconds, and said 'you know you gotta go with the grain, right?' I thought I was but I guess I was just doing random circles this whole time. Felt pretty dumb. Has anyone else had a basic technique click way later than it should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

carr.gavin1mo ago

... but wait did the pencil marks actually get sanded off without leaving residue? I tried that once with a regular No. 2 and it just smeared into the wood grain on some oak I was working on. Had to resand the whole face because of graphite streaks. Maybe a grease pencil or chalk would work better for darker woods? I've been just using my fingernail to trace the grain direction before each pass now but that's tedious too.

terrybennett1mo ago

Your dad probably saved you from going crazy with that one. I did the same thing on a dresser a few years back but with orbital sanding patterns instead of circles, thought I was being thorough but really just making a mess of the grain.

jake_owens1mo ago

You ever try sanding a curved piece of furniture with the grain... that one took me a while too. I finally just started marking the grain direction with a pencil before I even pick up the sandpaper, saves a lot of headache.