Advice on finishing cherry

[Stigmorgan]

I have a piece of cherry that I've cut into small sections and have started making into pots, usually I work with oak or silver birch, cherry is new to me and has been a frustrating wood to work with but the end result on the first pot is beautiful, so far the outside has been card scraped to remove tool marks and rough sanded with 80grit, as an insane person I quite enjoy sitting in my garden hand sanding my pots/bowls whilst watching nature do her thing around me, with oak I like to sand up to 600 grit and get a really nice cheer on the wood before applying bees wax, silver birch I usually stop at 400grit and use a teak oil, depending on the piece I will either leave it at that or apply beeswax.
My question is what grit would you guys recommend I sand to and what finish would look best on this piece of cherry? I will also be print transferring my logo onto the bottom but I will likely just use beeswax there to prevent smudging the logo ink.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

• Oak and other coarse textured woods, plus medium textured wood species such as walnut: 180 grit.
• Cherry and other fine textured species, e.g., maple: no higher than 220 grit.

There's no point sanding with grit sizes smaller than the texture of the wood, e.g., the open pores of oak are equivalent to the grit size of about 180, so there's generally no benefit in sanding with a finer grit, e.g., 220, 280, 320, 400, etc. Slainte.

 

[Stigmorgan]

• Oak and other coarse textured woods, plus medium textured wood species such as walnut: 180 grit.
• Cherry and other fine textured species, e.g., maple: no higher than 220 grit.

There's no point sanding with grit sizes smaller than the texture of the wood, e.g., the open pores of oak are equivalent to the grit size of about 180, so there's generally no benefit in sanding with a finer grit, e.g., 220, 280, 320, 400, etc. Slainte.

Does it matter that all my sanding is with the grain not across it?

 

[MARK.B.]

No that is the usual way of sanding for a finish , you can go across the grain at the start if it helps to remove a stubborn bit,but always finish with the grain. A random orbital sander with a soft pad to allow contour sanding would speed things up for you, but if you enjoy hand sanding whilst watching the world go by, then more power to your elbow will give just as good a result but take a little longer

 

[Stigmorgan]

No that is the usual way of sanding for a finish , you can go across the grain at the start if it helps to remove a stubborn bit,but always finish with the grain. A random orbital sander with a soft pad to allow contour sanding would speed things up for you, but if you enjoy hand sanding whilst watching the world go by, then more power to your elbow will give just as good a result but take a little longer

I live and work in a primary school so hand sanding helps kill time between work shifts

 

[MARK.B.]

You work in a primary school all day and all you want to kill is time

 

[Stigmorgan]

You work in a primary school all day and all you want to kill is time

Oh I want to kill the staff but that's frowned upon so I'll settle for killing time instead the kids are no problem really but that may be because I am the biggest child on site

 

[MARK.B.]

Frowned upon or strictly forbidden ? surely they would not miss the odd staff member here and there

 

[Stigmorgan]

If I put them through the woodchipper and spread them over allotment I'm sure it will be fine

 

[TheTiddles]

Cherry goes a lovely dark golden brown if left unfinished, I tend to use sanding sealer and clear wax on mine but then those are cherry parts of other pieces, usually lighter woods

 

[Stigmorgan]

Got it sanded to where I'm happy with it, just need to get the base a little flatter and apply my logo then I can add a finish, will either be clear beeswax or a spray lacquer.

 

[Stigmorgan]

It's all finished and I have to say I'm really happy with it, so much that I want to keep it for myself, a problem I'll probably have with all of them.

I decided on just a clear wax finish

 

[TheTiddles]

Nice, I hope that doesn’t split

 

[Stigmorgan]

Nice, I hope that doesn’t split

It's been sat in my garage for 3 years and in a friend's log pile for 2 years before that so it will be fine.