Mike,

There would definitely be a difference after glassing as well. At least I'm 95% sure of that (I scraped all the flat grain strips before glassing), but I did a test wet-out with mineral spirits prior to glassing, and there was a difference in appearance. Fortunately for me, I had a light strip near the bilge that separated the flat-grain strips from the vertical-grain strips. The vertical-grain strips I sanded normally. The light-colored strip hid the transition.

We've all heard the arguments for leaving the surface sanded with enough "tooth" to give the epoxy something to adhere to. But, it seems to me that the slicing action of the scraper would cleanly slice and expose open wood cells rather than crush them and make them fuzzy like sandpaper. By the color change in the wood when I wet-out, I know there was decent penetration of the (low viscosity) epoxy into the wood. I will be very surprised if I ever have any glass adhesion problems that are due to the scraped surface.

Ross

> Ross,

> Provocative photo. I meant to ask this before when you posted it, but
> could you or anyone else give opinions about:

> 1/After glassing is there any difference in appearance betw sanded areas
> and scraped areas? What difference? If you scrape, should you scrape
> everywhere for consistent appearance?

> 2/Upon glassing is there less glass adherence to scraped areas than to
> sanded areas? After leveling tough areas by scraping should they be
> scuffed up?

> thanks

> -mick