: I sat through a woodworking show presentation by a furniture maker
: who sands with progressively finer grades until he is up to a
: 4000 grit sanding pad. With no finish at all the wood is
: beautifully burnished. He too said something about the extra
: -fine sanding closing the pores in the wood. He passed around
: the sanding materials, and that final sanding pad didn't seem to
: have any grit to it at all--but the whole process give a
: beautiful result. Once you get past 400 grit there is not a lot
: of roughness to remove, so the progressively finer grades do not
: take a lot of time.
: You can get 2000 grit sandpaper at an autobody shop, and even at
: Wal-mart.

: PGJ

You're not making furniture. I can get nearly the same finish in about 1/10th the time sanding thru 120 grit paper, switching to 00 steel wool and finishing with 0000 steel wool, takes only a minute or two with each grade of steel wool.

You don't want to close the pores of the wood, otherwise the oil sits on the surface, ok for furniture, but this is a paddle, you want the oil to soak into the pores, still pretty much a surface finish, but a slightly more durable surface finish.

Bill H.