Sanding Live Edge
George VondriskaDescription
Sanding live edge on a table can be a little tricky. For me, I want to take any sharp edges off of the bark so it isn’t an uncomfortable piece of furniture to have around, but I don’t want to dramatically change its shape or contours. I also want to use the sanding live edge process to double check the bark and make sure it’s going to stay stuck. This isn’t a good job for a random orbit sander; that would flatten the bark too much. It IS is a good job for a flutter sander, also called a mop sander.
What kind of sander?
The sander we’re using to sand the live edge goes by a few different names: flutter sander, mop sander, sanding mop…there might be more. It’s made up of layers of abrasive, each layer going onto a mandrel at a slightly different angle than the previous layer. As it gets used the sander softens up (like a mop head, get it?) which allows it to conform to unusual shapes. As with any sander, a variety of grits are available so you can take your sanding from coarse to fine with this tool.
Need one?
You may not find a mop sander at a big box store. You’ll have to head to a more specialized woodworking store or, like we did, order one online. This sander was purchased from Klinspor’s Woodworking Shop. It’s a good idea to get one mandrel for each grit you’ll be using.
Other uses
Mop sanders are great for any irregular surface. In addition to the live edge worked on here, it made short work of cleaning up turned table legs. Check it out.
I really liked the look of live edge tables like I've got going here and when I do this, there are a couple of things involved. A couple of things I think about one is the bark. And my treatment of that is if I get this far in the process which is this table's ready for a coat of finish and the bark is still stuck it's probably gonna stay stuck. So what I do with that as I just come along and I kinda pick at it and if it naturally falls off it falls off and I leave it off. In this case this is a cherry table and the bark is doing a great job of staying stuck. So I'm good with that however, what I don't like is that there are spots this is a good example right here where when I feel this it's just a little sharp and there are of course it's bark. So there are a variety of spaces variety of spots where it's like that and it's just a little too edgy. And I don't wanna take a random orbit to this cause it's gonna then knock the bark down and it won't look like bark anymore. So instead I find that these things which are called flutter sanders or mop sanders do a really good job of easing the bark and kinda almost buffing it wire wheeling it without changing its look a lot. So here's the deal. And two at this stage, if the mop sander knocks the bark off a little bit, I'm okay with that cause that probably means it was gonna fall off anyway. Just treat this thing like a buffing wheel. And it's cool now when I come back and I feel this the edge is way more eased. And part of that in my woodworking what I'm looking for is I don't wanna leave a sharp corner where if your hand comes across that it's gonna be uncomfortable and it's the same with just the outside corners on the project itself. The other thing I learned in college was my finishing instructor taught us that if you have a perfect 90 degree corner if it's a sharp corner there's no place for finished to stick to it. So you always wanna ease those corners just a little bit. So that's part of what I'm applying to this bark here. So just a little bit of work with a map sander or a flutter sander is enough that it makes us more tactically comfortable. It makes it more comfortable to run my hand across this. It's gonna knock off any last little bit of loose junk before I shoot finish on this and the real benefit to it doesn't change the look the organic look of the bark that I have on here. So next time live edge is in a live edge is in your shop with bark on it like this or even without the bark try one of those mops sanders and I think you'll like how it shakes out for you.
I have found flap sanders but I am having a hard time finding something called a mop or flutter sander. In addition when I do find something which grit do you recommend?
Nice idea. Thank you. Safety glasses?
Do you have any videos, or can you provide a video on applying a finish to a live edge that has bark? Is spraying the only way to go? What type of product works best? How would you sand between coats? Thanks, Jim
George, You forgot to mention what grit of mop you used. I have a couple of old cast aluminum Flex-O-Sand attachments for my drill, with 120 and 180 grit in them. They seem to work great. Cheers, Tom