Took me 5 years to realize I was sanding end grain wrong

I was building a cherry desk for a client in Denver and kept getting these fuzzy results on the end grain no matter how fine I went. Finally an old timer at the lumber yard pointed out I was using the same grit progression as the face grain. He said jump from 120 straight to 220 on end grain and skip the middle grits, and bam no more fuzzies. Has anyone else got a trick they learned way later than they should have?

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the_richard2mo ago

The wetting trick is a game changer for sure, I do that on everything now. Another thing that saved my sanity was switching to those foam backed sanding pads for the final pass on end grain. Regular paper just folds up on me and leaves scratch marks. Also make sure your paper isn't loaded up with dust, I keep a little rubber block handy to tap it clean every few strokes. That alone cut my sanding time in half.

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the_christopher2mo ago

Felt this one in my bones lol. I spent like two whole years fighting end grain on walnut before I figured out I was just burnishing it with too many grits in between. Now I hit it with 120, then straight to 220 and call it good. Also learned the hard way that wetting the end grain first with a damp rag and letting it dry before sanding makes a huge difference too.

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