Found out the hard way why you don't skip grain sanding on cherry...

I had a kitchen job last month for a house over in Oak Park. The client wanted shaker style doors in cherry with a clear coat. I got in a hurry and figured I'd skip the grain raising step after the first sanding pass. Just went straight to my 180 grit and called it good. After I put the first coat of lacquer on those doors, the grain popped up like a porcupine. Felt like an idiot standing there looking at it. Ended up having to sand everything back down to bare wood and start over. Cost me about 6 hours of extra work and a whole can of laquer. Has anyone else here had cherry do that to them when you cut corners?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_robert2mo ago

I had that exact same thing happen with a walnut desk once, except my dog ran through the wet lacquer

cora8632mo ago

Doesn't that just make you want to throw a wrench across the shop? Cherry is like the drama queen of wood species, it holds a grudge if you skip a step. That grain raising after sanding, especially with a water-based pop, is basically the wood screaming at you for being lazy. I've had it happen on a set of cherry nightstands where I thought I was being slick with a quick wipe down, and the next morning those things looked like sandpaper. The worst part is you can't even cheat with a sealer coat, it'll just bubble up through the finish anyway. At least with walnut or oak you can sometimes get away with it if the grain is tight enough, but cherry will always make you pay. Honestly, I've started keeping a spray bottle of water and a rag right next to my sanding station just to avoid that panic.

the_emery2mo ago

A buddy of mine, Tom, had a cherry dining table he was finishing for his sister. He skipped the grain pop like @cora863 mentioned, thought he could get away with it. Next morning, the whole top looked like a cat had sharpened its claws all over it. He ended up having to sand it back down to bare wood, which took him two extra days. On top of that, his sister showed up unannounced while he was still in the middle of it, so he had to explain why her table was covered in dust instead of finish. He keeps a spray bottle on his bench now too, says it's saved him from that particular headache at least three times since.