Help with Restoring oak table

[Jimmy_]

Hi,

I am restoring an oak dining table. I started sanding on 60 grit then worked up to 320. I sanded to remove previous finishes. Most of the table feels very smooth after the 320 but some areas feel rough. I noticed the areas still rough have fine kind of holes/pits/pores in the oak. I have attached a picture at a distance where this isn’t noticeable and one closer where you can see these rough bits. Why has this happened in some areas? Do I keep going and sand until they are gone?

Many advice is much appreciated,

Thanks

 

[niall Y]

Hi there,
Difficult to judge, but it could be evidence if some kind localised decay in the original timber. This would give rise to soft punky areas. Looking at the photos , the top is made up of lots of narrow pieces , so probably not the best quality of timber was used. It is only when we start stripping things, that defects come to light.
I would be tempted to sand some more to see if you can reduce the amount of rough areas.
Best of luck

 

[Inspector]

Oak is a ring porous wood and those are the cells (tyloses) that the sap run up and down the trunk through. More pronounced in Red Oaks that don't fill as the tree grows older where they do in White Oak.

Tylose - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

You can either leave them and live with the finish partially filling them and showing when done or you can use grain filler and level the surface before finishing.

Pete

 

[Craig22]

The thing to do is to raise the grain by spraying with water, and then re-sand - or preferably use a cabinet scraper.

If you don't do that, as soon as you apply the first layer of a finish, the grain will raise and you'll get a rough finish.

But as Pete says, the ring structure is a feature of oak.

Craig