Let’s consider the finished surface qualities produced by sanding compared with handplaning. Here there will be no blanket declarations, including none extolling the superiority of handplaning, and no simple catalog of species with recommendations to sand or plane.

The real answer is to experiment as part of planning your project. In each case, consider the look you want and the practicalities of the building process.

You have to assess the surface of the wood (the particular boards at hand, not just as a species) in combination with the applied finish. Just as it pays off to plan the applied finish at the start of a project, so too should the method of finishing surfacing the wood be planned. Winging it is usually not smart.

Here are examples from the shavings and dust of my shop. YMMV. This discussion pertains to the final surfacing of wood that has already been trued or shaped; we’re only dealing with the last few thousandths of an inch of wood.

By the way, for exposed parts in fine woodwork, I never finish with the surface from a random orbit sander, no matter how fine the disc paper. When sanding, I always finish with hand sanding. In fact, most of the time, I don’t use the ROS at all.

For figured big leaf maple, one of my favorites, with satin gel varnish, I can see no difference in the final look whether the wood surface is finished off with hand planing or fine hand sanding. Therefore, I do whichever is easier and that is usually sanding.

The same goes for figured bubinga with oil-varnish mix. Bubinga responds exceptionally well to scraping, so little sanding is required thereafter.

Claro walnut, another favorite, with oil-varnish, seems to look more clear and lively when handplaned. With brush-on varnish however, I cannot tell the difference between planing and sanding. For highly figured Claro, its visual impact often seems to override subtle differences between planing and sanding.

Curly cherry with gel varnish, the finish I like best for it, is finicky. It looses some of its pizzazz when sanded. Pearwood similarly looks exquisite straight from the smoothing plane and can well be left unfinished, but after two coats of water-base acrylic, it is hard to tell if the wood was planed or sanded.

Oak, red or white, flatsawn or quartered, plain or figured, with wiping varnish and the grain unfilled, usually looks about the same to me, sanded or planed. Oil-varnish is different.

Again I emphasize that I always experiment at the outset of a project with the actual wood and finishes that I am using for that project, and try to anticipate the practical issues that I will encounter in building the piece.

We ought to be practical. A curvy table leg creates most of its visual impact from its form, while it is the surface and figure of a cabinet door panel that we appreciate. Again, choose planing or sanding based on the overall look that you are after and the practicalities of building. Maybe there are fine facets on the leg that sanding would obscure and a spokeshave is the right tool to use, or maybe there are gradual curves that look good sanded.

Work with a smoothing plane is usually more pleasant than with sandpaper, but sometimes planing is just awkward, such as when finishing off a dovetailed case. And let’s face it, sometimes we just don’t want to spend more time at the sharpening bench.

There are also some special situations. For example, when fitting a drawer, a hand plane is the only tool to use on the sides. Choose the wood for the sides to allow easy planing and usually leave it unfinished.

One more thing: when finish planing difficult wood, there are almost always a few spots of tearout that just seem unavoidable, or maybe the blade developed a nick (especially some A2 blades) and left a little row of raised wood. I touch up these areas with a 0.020″-thick sharp scraper rather than with sandpaper. Nothing is perfect.

Next: sanding tools

Sanding does not get much respect among woodworkers. Hand planing uses more gratifying tools in a more pleasing process, and when suitably employed, leaves lively surfaces and is more efficient. This series of posts will attempt to put sanding in perspective in the world of fine woodworking and present practical information on tools and techniques.

James Krenov wrote in The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking, “To me, sanding is not a way to express sensitivity with wood, even less a sign of true skill,” yet he recognized a legitimate role for sanding, recommending, for example, scraping and sanding as the best way to finish rowed woods like padauk.

The first thing to clear up is whether you are sanding to shape wood or to produce a nice surface on wood. Are you forming a curve or smoothing the surface of an existing curve? Are you flattening a surface or just smoothing an already flat surface? Sanding is hardly ever the best way to shape or dimension wood unless you are using jigged machines such as a spindle sander or thicknessing sander.

True, sometimes you are both shaping and smoothing, such as when forming a light chamfer with a hand sanding block or running a figured panel through a drum sander. But generally speaking, it is important first to be clear about just what you are doing when sanding. In fact, most problems with sanding come from inadvertently mixing shaping and finishing.

For example, you have a fantastically figured board in the rough, or perhaps is flat from the planer but full of tearout. You are afraid to touch it with a handplane so you take out the random orbit sander, start with a 60-grit disc and work through to 320. Unfortunately, despite all efforts to evenly distribute the sanding, the final smooth surface is wavy, the outer edges are dipped, and there is no hope of using this as a reference surface for further work, such as for a drawer front.

There were lots of better options that would have produced and/or retained a true surface that would then require only fine sanding, which would not squander the flatness. Among them, for various stages, are: a spiral cutterhead on the planer, a thicknessing sander, a jack plane worked across the board, a toothed blade in the jack plane, a Veritas scraper plane, a micro-toothed blade in the scraper plane, and a hand scraper.

An equally unpromising plan is to take a curved table leg rough sawn off the bandsaw and hope to use a curved sanding block with coarse paper as the primary final shaping tool. You will not get the proper feedback to produce a true curve that comes instead from high quality rasps, spokeshaves, and curved planes. When the curves have been trued with some of those tools, then you can use the curved sanding block to just finish smooth.

The point is that sanding – by hand and with small and large machines – has its place but it pays to be mentally clear about exactly what you are trying to accomplish with it, and restrict it to that task.

In the next installment, let’s consider the finished surface qualities produced by sanding versus handplaning. Be prepared for some surprises.

Well, I painted myself into a corner and now a half-mortise lock must be installed in an already assembled box in tight quarters and on a schedule.

No problem: just call Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. The nice folks there put a set of their drawer lock chisels on their way to me that same day. Thanks to Chris Becksvoort for his excellent design of these handy tools.

The chisels have square, raised corners (ends, really) so the hammer or mallet makes true, solid contact and the force of the blow is properly directed. My Glen-Drake #4 brass mallet came in very handy for this work, supplying more umph in a small space than the side of a hammer.

The chisels in the pair are mirror images of each other. In use, it soon becomes apparent why this is helpful. The larger edge, 1/2″ wide, is parallel to the length of the tool, while the 1/4″ edge at the other end is perpendicular to it. Again, only an experienced, thoughtful woodworker would know to incorporate these design features, which turn out to be so right in the hands of the user.

Yes, they are are fairly tedious to sharpen – the 1/4″ edge is like sharpening a hand router blade – but they do come well ground, which mitigates the task. The steel is A2. O1 would be easier to sharpen but I don’t know how it tolerates being struck and how it responds in the manufacturing process. Lie-Nielsen must have good reasons for their choice.

These chisels probably would have come in handy long before my recent purchase but I bet they will soon come in handy again. Woodworkers are fortunate to have wonderful tools like this available to us.

When installing solid brass hardware in fine woodwork, matching solid brass screws are essential to complete the look. However, brass wood screws are weak compared to their steel counterparts and there often is limited depth with which to work, such as in a small box lid.

Lee Valley recommends the use of brass machine screws as having much better strength than brass wood screws in short holes. I have tried this with excellent results with 4-40 (above, left) and 6-32 (above, right) flat head brass machine screws. Here are the details.

The why

The machine screw has the advantage of a thicker, non-tapered body that is less likely to break than the wood screw as you torque it down. Furthermore, because the machine screw threads have already been cut by a tap, the screw goes in easily and only tightens as the head meets the countersunk hole in the hardware.

By contrast, a brass wood screw has to cut its own threads and the screw is stressed throughout the range of installation. Yes, you can use a steel screw to pre-cut the threads, but good luck trying to find a steel wood screw with threads that match the pitch of the same nominal size brass wood screw. They usually do not, which means you are simply breaking down some of the inter-thread wood that the brass screw’s holding power depends upon. A recent Brusso hinge set came with such a mismatched steel screw.

Tightening into a properly tapped hole, the brass machine screws feel very solid. I find I can now relax with this method for small hardware installation.

The how

The preparatory hole is drilled at the root or “minor” diameter of the machine screw (the diameter of the screw body without the threads), which yields 100% thread depth when the hole is tapped. Typical work in metal uses 75%, or less, thread depth by using a pilot hole somewhat greater than the root diameter of the screw.

For 4-40 machine screws, the minor diameter is .0813″. This is approximated with these drill bits: 2mm (.0787″), #46 (.0810″), and 5/64″ (.0781″). For 6-32, the minor diameter of .0997″ is approximated with these bits: 2.5mm (.0984″), #39 (.0995″), and maybe 3/32″ (.0938″).

Fortunately, those wonderful folks at Lee Valley sell inexpensive sets of drills in the metric sizes with imperial taps through 1/4-20. In cherry, maple, and shedua (ovangkol), all tight-grained hardwoods, the method worked very well in 4-40 and 6-32. Of course, it pays to experiment beforehand in the specific wood species.

Use a standard-point tap and ratcheting hand tap wrench for most situations, but consider a bottoming tap when you want to eke out every last bit of functional depth. Tap carefully, without wobbling the tool, especially for the smallest sizes whose wood threads are still fairly delicate while in the formation process. Even fine threads in wood are surprisingly sturdy once they are fully filled with the screw, but I like to harden the wood threads with a tiny bit of cyanoacrylate glue. Epoxy is not worth the hassle in my opinion.

I bought a supply of brass machine screws 4-40and 6-32 in longer lengths than required and easily cut them to length with an electrical multitool (shown), and then filed the cut edge clean.

Since we are often dealing with shallow depths and small tolerances, make sure the screw will actually tighten against the countersunk hole in the hardware and not just tighten against the taper left by the tap at the deep end of the hole.

I often prefer to enlarge the countersink and hole in brass hardware if there is room to accommodate the next larger screw size, e.g. 4-40 to 6-32, for more strength.

I was listening to a Pandora station in the shop today and it got me to thinking.

Pandora is a wonderful music app that characterizes each song or track of recorded music using “hundreds of musical details . . . melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics . . . and more” based on the analyses of Pandora’s team of expert musicians.

With this information, Pandora plays songs that it figures you will like based on “stations” that you set up. The play lists of your stations get refined as you tell Pandora more of your preferences via your continuing “like” and “don’t like” inputs, which the app remembers.

Among my stations (Motown, SRV, etc.), one of my favorites during exacting hand tool work is solo classical guitar music. I’ve guided that station to play lots of J. S. Bach’s unaccompanied violin, cello, and lute music transcribed for guitar. Having just given a thumbs-up to a few tracks of Bach, Pandora then presented some similar sounding tracks, which made perfect sense based on the music’s objectified elements.

But I thought the tracks, analyzed to be similar to Bach, were pretty crappy. Yet Pandora’s system is very sophisticated and this is no knock on Pandora; I highly recommend it.

Thinking theoretically, if you took every detail of Bach’s music, every element, every nuance, everything, well, then I suppose you would have Bach – and nothing else. But wait; Bach already did that, as only he could. That’s why his name is on the music.

OK, you’ve stayed with me this far but “Rob,” you say, “what the heck does this have to do with woodworking?”

The things you make are not defined by how well you fit dovetails, or how nice your well-tuned planes produce surfaces, or even the woods you choose. Your pieces are not fully definable by style, even your style. Each piece you make is ultimately definable only by itself – all of it, and all of it together, as it exists. Just like the music, there are limits to how much you can characterize or analyze it before you essentially reconstruct it.

That’s the word: construct. You do that when you design and build something. Just like the music tracks, it has innumerable characteristics but cannot be truly described except by the whole of it – what you built.

How grateful we should be, to make something – and sign it.

Good lighting is one of the most under-appreciated assets for fine woodworking, especially handwork at the bench. It is a shame to see an elaborately equipped shop with nothing more than fluorescent ceiling lights illuminating the workbench.

Basically, the properties of lighting are intensity, distance from source to the object, angle of incidence, and quality, which includes the color cast (color temperature). Without delving into technical detail, for detailed tasks such as hand cutting joinery, you want a strong light that is adjustable for distance and angle, and has a pleasing whiteness.

The Super Nova lamp from Woodturners Wonders delivers big time on all counts. It was developed by woodturner and inventive guy Ken Rizza for use with a lathe but is just as useful for general woodworking. The three LEDs in the lamp head together use 9 watts of power to generate 870 lumens.

This is a heavy-duty lamp. The 30″ flexible stainless steel neck, covered with a black flexible, non-reflective shroud, holds its adjustment in any position. This is the key to the effectiveness of a lamp like this – the light can be adjusted to the exact location and direction desired and it stays put. The heavy rectangular base houses a switchable magnet that holds with 286 pounds of force! The base is large enough to easily accommodate a clamp to secure it to a wooden surface.

Below is not trick photography. The base is holding unyieldingly to the even the 2mm sheet steel of the bandsaw cover, while the neck does not sag a bit when fully extended. Wow!

The LEDs are rated for 50,000 hours life (8 hours/day every day for more than 17 years). The lamp is equipped with a generous 9-foot cord. Unfortunately it ends with the obligatory transformer but at least this one is small and light. A minor complaint is that I wish the switch button was placed on the back of the lamp head instead of on the side of it because I tend to switch the lamp off when grabbing the head to adjust it.

This bad boy lamp is not cheap at a regular price of $159 (look for sales) but a good light is one of the most important tools in the shop. It is by far the best lamp for detailed bench work that I have ever used or seen. Several cheaper “good” task lamps have frustrated me over the years. I cannot at this time attest to its durability but it certainly seems sturdy and does carry a two-year warranty. Smaller models are available.

I suggest trying a top quality task light in your shop. You may be surprised what you have been missing as you experience the improved visual feedback for detailed handwork, and using a raking light for surfacing and finishing.

This review is unsolicited and uncompensated. I have no affiliation with Woodturners Wonders.

These Sensgard Zem hearing protectors are the best I have ever used. Before elaborating, I will explain the problems I have had with some other protectors.

I do not like stuffing things into my ear canals. This includes foam plugs that are first compressed with the fingers, which are often dirty, then jammed in where they are uncomfortable and then tend to work their way loose. Various silicon, latex, or high tech torpedoes that are also held in the ear canal much as a cork is held in a wine bottle are also unwelcome in my ears.

Bulky, cumbersome earmuffs are at the other end of the range of options. I have top-quality Peltor muffs but even with their soft padding, they squeeze the temples of my eyeglasses uncomfortably against my skull. It isn’t long before I decide the noise is more tolerable than the headache.

Finally, all problems are solved with Zem hearing protectors by Sensgard. The replaceable foam cuffs of these extremely lightweight protectors comfortably skirt the entrance to the ear canal. The acoustic chambers (the arms) vault my eyeglass temples – no more skull aches. They go on and off in a snap, and when not in use, hang around the neck or fold compactly for storage.

All these advantages would be enough but here is the best part: the noise reduction is phenomenal. I powered up my DW735 thickness planer, measured 100 dB(A) at 2 feet under no load, and then put on the Sensgards. I was flabbergasted at the dramatic but even, pleasant noise diminishment. The nominal NRR (Noise Reduction Rating) is 31 but they are far more superior to my Peltor model, listed at 28, than the numbers might suggest.

I actually had to accustom myself to remaining alert to the ferocity of woodshop machinery while enjoying the auditory peace. Yet, I could adequately hear important shop sounds such as speech.

More information about the Zem technology is available on the Sensgard website. I have the NRR31 model in easy-to-find lime green. Put them on according to the simple package instructions; that makes a big difference. I found the lowest price on Amazon. Extra foam cuffs are good to have.

[This review is unsolicited and uncompensated. I have no connection with Sensgard.]

When to remove the clamps

The instructions on the Titebond III bottle recommend “clamp for a minimum of 30 minutes (longer is better)” and “Do not stress joints for 24 hours,” which is how long PVA glues generally take to fully cure.

I leave the clamps on at least overnight. There really is no hurry to remove them unless they are needed for other work. Furthermore, I will not be working the board for at least 24 hours to allow time for the joint to condition and the board to reach a uniform moisture content as excess moisture exits the glue line area. This avoids producing a sunken joint line or depressions over the biscuits when surfacing the panel.

Also, it seems plausible that the joint could be stressed from changes in moisture and applied forces if the clamps are removed too early in the curing process.

For these reasons, I put the assembly aside and wait until the next day to remove the clamps, tending toward longer times for larger work, and up to 24 hours if there are any doubts about the behavior of the wood. Small, light panels such as a drawer bottom can be unclamped sooner.

Flattening the panel

Hopefully, this will be fairly easy and corrections will be well within the range of hand planing for small to medium panels if biscuits were used for alignment. The panel only needs to be flat enough for its function. Don’t worry about small imperfections that yield to light hand pressure and, for example, a table frame will easily flatten. On the other hand, don’t allow an errant panel to twist the frame of a light cabinet door that needs to fit and close precisely.

As needed, work diagonally with the jack plane to true the surface, then finish off with the smoother or scrape or sand to the final surface.

If you glued up a large panel in stages, you may be able to flatten the intermediate glue ups with a wide jointer-planer, minimizing the work required on the final panel. For a big table top that needs significant correction, consider using the services of a local commercial shop with a giant wide-belt sander.

It is reassuring to do some testing on the off-cuts, as in the photo at top. I grasp both ends of the off-cut and bash the joint line against a hard table edge. Though the force is directed on or very close to the joint line, only the surrounding wood will break while the joint line remains intact.

Summary

To confidently and efficiently produce sound edge-to-edge joints and beautiful glued-up panels, here is what to do:

1. Select reliable wood to produce visual and structural harmony, especially along the joint line.
2. Use straightforward methods, finishing with hand planes, to make good joint surfaces that fully meet. Use the slightest bit of camber as a one-sided tolerance.
3. Use biscuits for alignment in boards thick enough to accommodate them and the special method for small, thin boards.
4. Use parallel-head clamps with a simple tunable setup.
5. Rehearse the glue up then work fast.
6. Feel good about what you made – it’s going to last!

Closing thoughts

I hope this series on edge-to-edge joints will assist you in this essential aspect of woodworking. In writing this blog, I want to empower people to make things and experience the quiet – yet great – joy of it. I’m not an infallible guru – no one is. Nevertheless, I can assure you that these methods are carefully thought out, researched, have been used by me for many years, and actually work in my shop.

Of course, there is more than one good way to do almost everything in woodworking, so you will surely find those who disagree with some of what I have presented. No problem. Please do consider alternatives, try things in your shop, and ultimately use your judgment to find what works for you in your shop to give you the results you want.

NOTE: The entire 6000-word series on Edge-to-edge Joints and the many other series on this blog can be conveniently accessed via the Series page.