: I re-contoured an oil finished paddle last night, but didn't remove all of
: the original finish. Sanding it was a pain, as it clogged the paper and
: smeared. When I applied a new coat of oil, the finish came out slightly
: rough, with fine spotches in the areas where the old finish was not
: completely removed. The question is: how do I fix it?

Not sure if I can help, as I haven't run into the finish problems that you are having.... I assume that you have used only oil and have not waxed the paddle.

One reason that I preferred oil on my first paddles is that it enabled me to experiment with finding the perfect loom length by gradually making the loom longer by cutting new shoulders, without worrying about the finish. I used a fine rasp (Nicholsen 49 or 50), for intitial shaping, since the oil will initially clog sandpaper as you encountered. I didn't remove all of the finish but did feather the worked area. The old and new oiled areas blending together perfectly over time (with linseed oil applied with steel wool), perhaps you simply need to continue applying more oil to the new areas and allow it to cure.

Whenever I expose fresh wood, I wet it to raise the grain and sand, and repeat until the wood behaves. After that I simply re-oil using steel wool.

Greg Stamer