How to Sand Wood Furniture – 5 Game-Changing Tips

How to Sand Wood Furniture - Photo by Christopher Jolly on Unsplash
Photo by Christopher Jolly on Unsplash

Ever have a wood furniture project you’ve sanded down (you think) 100% – only to find out when you apply your wood stain that there are swirls and scratches all over the place??

Trust me, we all have. You should know the basics of how to sand wood: sand WITH the grain, use proper ventilation, and dust masks, etc… But here are 5 Game-Changing Tips on How to Sand Wood Furniture to eliminate those swirls and scratches.

Tip #1: Research the correct technique for the type of wood you are sanding.

You should know how to sand wood furniture that is softwood, and how to sand wood furniture that is hardwood.

Not sure what type of wood your piece is? Check out my Ultimate Guide to Identifying Wood Types in Furniture.

Softwoods should be treated differently than hardwoods. Most softwoods should be started at no lower than 100 grit unless there are severe gouges. 

Start with 120 grit on woods like cedar, fir, and alder. And finish with no finer than 180 for oil-based stains and 220 for water-based stains. 

Hardwoods like maple and oak start with 120 grit and finish with no finer than 150 grit for oil-based stains and 180 for water-based stains and gel stains.

Pinewood should be treated differently still. Start no lower than 120 grit, follow up with 150 grit, and then finish sand with 120 grit one more time.

This opens up the pores to accept stains more easily as pine is a very difficult wood to stain properly.

What’s the first thing you should do before refinishing a piece of wood furniture? 
Figure out the wood type. 
Different woods require different methods for sanding, staining, painting, repairing, you name it.
After hours on Google comparing photos of hundreds of wood grains to your piece, are you more unsure than ever? Get the 169 page interactive eBook, “Grain”.

Grain Investigating Your Furniture Wood Identity

Sandpaper Grit Guide

 1st Sanding2nd Sanding3rd SandingAfter 1st Finish Coat
Soft
wood
120150180220 or 320
Hard
Wood
120150150/180320
Pine120150120320

If you need more help with staining after you get your sanding game down, check out my article on how to stain wood.

PLUS be sure to read my most recent experiment in which I FINALLY figured out the best treatment method for preparing wood for staining. You don’t want to miss this one step before you apply your stain. 

Tip #2: Make sure you move up to the next sandpaper grit correctly.

A good rule of thumb: do not go up by more than 50% of the current grit. 

So if you are using 120 grit – go no higher than 180 grit(+60 = 50% of 120) for the next sanding.

If you are using 100 grit, go no higher than 150 grit(+50), then to 220 grit, etc. 

Each grit scratches the wood in a specific “pattern”. When you move to the next grit, the “scratch pattern” becomes smaller, but fills the spaces left from the prior grit’s “scratch pattern”.

 If you skip to a much finer grit from a low one, there will be gaps left where those patterns just did not line up correctly.

This also explains (I hope) why you should always go in the direction of the wood grain, and not across the grain. 

Free Printable Sandpaper Grit Guide

Sandpaper Grit Guide

I created a nice guide for future reference to help you never use the incorrect grit again!

Click Here for the full-sized, printable version.

Tip #3: When using power sanders– random orbital or not– do not move faster than 1 inch per second.

This one was a game-changer for me! It feels very slow at first, but practice it long enough and you get used to it. 

You can even use a stopwatch and measuring tape lined up with the piece you are sanding if you can’t quite get it down. 

Moving too fast causes those awful swirls you can’t get rid of. Once you start slowing down they will disappear!

how to sand wood furniture tip

Tip #4: It IS Possible to over-sand a piece. Make sure not to go too fine on the final sand.

Even 220 grit is sometimes too high. Those higher grit sandpapers are for finish sanding after you coat with polyurethane or sealer.

If you use 300 grit on bare wood it will close off the pores making it impenetrable to stains.

180 grit is usually best for finishing before the stain. 150 grit even; for some woods.

I’d also recommend using a hand sander or sanding block on the final sand. Be sure to go slow and smooth with it. It will help to eliminate some of the little circles left from your orbital sander if they happen to occur. 

Tip #5: Use lighting to your advantage.

While you are sanding, keep a light pointed across the plane of the wood, NOT straight above you.

This helps the light bounce off of the scratches so they will stand out.

Then you can easily fix them while you sand instead of finding them when it’s too late.

Definitely worth the time to set up your space correctly. If you don’t have a light that would work for that, I recommend these magnetic LED Lights:

How to Sand Wood Furniture - 5 Game-Changing Tips 1
Led Work Lights

Related: The Best Tools For Refinishing Furniture

1 more tip on sanding wood that’s not on my list: put the piece you’re working on, on a non-slip Friction pad like this:

How to Sand Wood Furniture - 5 Game-Changing Tips 2
Non – Slip Woodworking Mat Pad

It helps a ton with the wood sliding around which is another way to get swirls and scratches on the wood.

These 5(+) tips on how to sand wood truly were game changers for me in my sanding game. Hopefully, they will help some of you as well!

Have any other tricks for getting the perfect sanded piece? I’d love to hear them!

If you have any questions or problems with any of your sanding projects – please get in touch!🙂 

Or if you’d rather, check out a few of the sites I got my info from that really taught me a lot!

Also, before I go, I just wanted to note you guys,

My Favorite Orbital Sander:

Bosche Sander How To Sand Wood Furniture
Bosch Random Orbit Sander 5in.

I previously had Ridgid’s Orbital Sander down, but I’ve recently been persuaded to try out the Bosch and fell in love. It’s an orbital sander, but as soon as I started using it I knew it wasn’t like all the others.

It has a “pad dampening system” which essentially weakens the force of the pad automatically when it feels too much pressure. So for people that push down on the sander when you reach tough spots (me), it counteracts that pressure and stops you from potentially gouging the wood or creating those lovely swirls we all know and love. That alone was enough to sell me on the Bosch Orbital Sander.

The dust collection system is also great. It has a micro-filter system that collects even the tiniest particles so they’re not left in the air waiting to ruin your finish work!

For the price, I was also pleasantly surprised to find the variable speed option which usually isn’t available on the cheaper models from other brands.

Changing the speed can help a lot when it comes to strip sanding.

You want to use slower speeds while using lower grits to strip paint or finish off of a piece. This will help reduce friction which causes heat and more paint to stick to your sanding disc.

While sanding already smoothed surfaces with higher grit sandpaper, you can use high speeds with no problem.

But we won’t get into stripping furniture now, that’s a whole other blog post! If you’re using a sander to strip paint from your piece, check out my post on The Best Sander For Stripping Furniture. It’s on a whole different level!

I hope these tips help you with your next sanding job!

Thanks for reading, feel free to pin the image below if you enjoyed my post.

KRay 🙂

Sanding Wood Furniture 5 Game Changing Tips
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Get your free printable sandpaper grit cheat sheet below!

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