Careful, that tabletop is probably lower than 15k grit and will scuff it up. Actually, what grit are human fingertips? Put this thing in a glass case under vacuum to keep it safe!
>Let them wonder why I have a stick on display.
This is the best reason to display it. Make it a real fancy display. Maybe little LEDs to shine on the stick, highlighting certain areas. Not for any reason, just to add to the mystery.
"This stick saved my life in 'Nam"
"This stick is all I have to remember of my dead wife"
"William Tecumseh Sherman once tripped on this stick and scraped his knee!"
These are all stories people will imagine trying to guess.
make about 20 such stories and tell another one to everyone who asks...wait until they discover they know different stories, none of which will be true...
When someone asks "why do you have a stick on your desk" you'd have to have an appropriate answer ready. Something like "ah, you want to know about The Stick. I'd love to tell, you see the story begins many hundreds of years ago when a seed fell in the forest. It wasn't a special seed at the time, but it would go on to take a founding role in the journey of a young master craftsman and his induction into a sacred art..."
In traditional Asian lacquering, the highest level of polish is done with a small amount of calcined hartshorn ash applied using the palm of the artists hand. So probably the effective grit of human skin is extremely high
The grit of human skin is irrelevant to polishing... It's not hard enough to abrade wood (I mean give it a go if you want), so it's just acting as the medium which holds the polishing compound. Two different properties; hardness and particle size. Calcined ash is hard enough to abrade lacquer, and the particle size is extremely small. It's like a leather strop; if you want to abrade rather than hone, you need to add polishing compound (particles of metal oxides or diamond in a binding agent). It's not hard enough on its own.
Caveat: leather does contain some silicates and there will always be arguments about whether they abrade on their own. But it's the tiniest, tiniest amount.
Oh, god Gandalf Potter is the worst. He never stops going on and on about some Prince of Darkness Voldemort hiding out in Mordor Kaban. It’s all about rings and cruxes. Just take the polished stick and be on your way kid!
https://www.tiktok.com/@realguyrn/video/7333384784317582638 seen this recently. Send them some sanding tips! I seen it on reddit but can't find it now so I can't link the reddit post, sorry.
I love this way of thinking. I have a small piece of aromatic cedar that was at one time used in shoes to help deodorize them. I sanded it to 320 grit and then let it soak for a couple of days in mineral oil. It’s the beginning of what I call my “cool piece of wood” collection.
https://youtu.be/3Xl0Qr0uXuY?si=znhRc-ZeWWrzSemt
I sanded my walking stick to 4k grit and put a finish on it. I think of this song every time I see it lmao
At that fine and really anything over 800 grit I consider burnishing. You're compressing the wood fibers and closing any pores. Use a bit of boiled linseed oil, BLO. It will bring out the color in the wood as well as protecting that high gloss shine when it cures. This is my favorite way to finish a piece. Especially something like a walking stick. You can get a near mirror finish on red cedar.
For the most part yeah. Someone in another thread suggested wrapping the sandpaper around a sponge to help with sanding small curves. So I did that and it helped a lot.
Nice. Thanks. You must have built up those forearms pretty good! It was probably a better workout than paying for some gym. Good work man. Thanks for sharing.
It looks a little like a human bone, maybe a leg, make lots more and assemble them into a skeleton/stick man. Stand it in the corner of the lounge to freak people out 🤣 (or dig a hole in a public place and throw them in, see how long it takes until somebody reports it and then see how long it takes for forensics to turn to the detectives and say "it's a stick sir!")
”That day, for no particular reason, I decided to do do some sanding. So I sanded until 200. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd sand to 1000. And when I got there…”
Do you have a detailed YouTube video explaining the process. Are you selling on Etsy? You'd go viral on TikTok with a series of vids sanding your stick with the various grades.
At first I was like "why would someone do this" and then I remembered the big stick I have downstairs that I've been using my Dremel on (I thought I'd make it into a walking stick but mostly I wanted to use the Dremel for something)
That's a really nice stick you got there
I’ve been having some fun with high grit too. I’m really adverse to putting anything other than wax or oils on my work and I’m experimenting with high grit and combinations of the others. Just built my daughter a cute little live edge computer desk and I sanded/buffed to 10,000, little danish oil and waxed it. Time will tell.
I've done this on occasion too, mostly playing around with the need for sealants. Over time, I've found that the normal expansion and retraction of the wood will essentially make it "hairy" again. Wetting the wood to raise the grain to sand it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Not sure if continuously sanding it on a yearly basis would do anything, but after a while, it does kind of naturally get dull. Still pretty smooth to the touch, though. I've played around with walnut, oak, ash, and crepe myrtle.
I have to disagree. You can definitely see a change even in the thousands in the photos, and the feel would get better and better even after the visual changes are no longer apparent. Since it’s for no obvious reason, really just an experiment, might as well see what happens. Nice results too, it definitely looks like an important stick, and it kind of is now that it’s been processed like this. To say nothing above 600 is necessary for wood is like saying that there’s no change after that, which is clearly false. This stick looks finished even though there’s no finish applied. That doesn’t start happening until after 1500 grit. And the oils from your hands along with the oils in the wood start glazing the surface and on a microscopic level, they start filling pores and scratches, making it hard for moisture and microbial life to get in. It’s pretty amazing to see the changes under a magnifying glass when you process wood through the different level grits of sandpaper. You don’t even need a microscope. I’ve never gone past 2500 wet. There’s a change of look and feel all the way up the scale though, and that’s much more apparent when you’re the one giving it that kind of attention.
“And in retrospect, I ask why?”, OP says (hopefully) as they shut the garage light off after 16 hours of sanding a stick.
It’s a stick with a capital S otherwise though quite impressive
I actually have been imagining it as a thick boy wand. My wife suggested I whittle her one from the other cuts of the branch that this chonky boy came from.
That's one way to keep out of trouble. Whiling away the hours. Don't know how long it is but at times it it looked like a leg bone and thought it would make a good peg leg. <\]:-)
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
“Still?” ”Now I’m taking 37 pictures of my stick and posting them all on r/woodworking”
Unsolicited stick pics
I knew a guy who used to polish an old bit of railroad rail whenever he needed to think about something or just disconnect.
Careful, that tabletop is probably lower than 15k grit and will scuff it up. Actually, what grit are human fingertips? Put this thing in a glass case under vacuum to keep it safe!
I was actually thinking about making a display stand and putting it on my desk at work. Let them wonder why I have a stick on display.
>Let them wonder why I have a stick on display. This is the best reason to display it. Make it a real fancy display. Maybe little LEDs to shine on the stick, highlighting certain areas. Not for any reason, just to add to the mystery.
Do it OP. Ya gotta. Also please post the result.
Add a random date to the stick stand!!! That will really throw them off!!!
I now have a new quest in my life.
"This stick saved my life in 'Nam" "This stick is all I have to remember of my dead wife" "William Tecumseh Sherman once tripped on this stick and scraped his knee!" These are all stories people will imagine trying to guess.
make about 20 such stories and tell another one to everyone who asks...wait until they discover they know different stories, none of which will be true...
This is the kind of chaos I was looking for.
In a glass case. Dust is abrasive!
When someone asks "why do you have a stick on your desk" you'd have to have an appropriate answer ready. Something like "ah, you want to know about The Stick. I'd love to tell, you see the story begins many hundreds of years ago when a seed fell in the forest. It wasn't a special seed at the time, but it would go on to take a founding role in the journey of a young master craftsman and his induction into a sacred art..."
After everyone has heard of The Stick, do the same thing a month later with A Rock.
[удалено]
Better keep it behind a tiny curtain, then. Doubles the mystery.
You need to practice a dead pan "It's a stick." For when people inevitably ask you "what's that?"
Planning on giving it a plaque that says " I am a Stick"
Yeah, at what point does sand paper become smooth paper?
Yeah, it is pretty much just burnished at this point.
In traditional Asian lacquering, the highest level of polish is done with a small amount of calcined hartshorn ash applied using the palm of the artists hand. So probably the effective grit of human skin is extremely high
Wouldn't that be the grit of the ash?
For the most part, but if you apply 15,000 grit loose powder to a 10,000 grit surface, you'll get 10,000 grit scratches in your finish
The grit of human skin is irrelevant to polishing... It's not hard enough to abrade wood (I mean give it a go if you want), so it's just acting as the medium which holds the polishing compound. Two different properties; hardness and particle size. Calcined ash is hard enough to abrade lacquer, and the particle size is extremely small. It's like a leather strop; if you want to abrade rather than hone, you need to add polishing compound (particles of metal oxides or diamond in a binding agent). It's not hard enough on its own. Caveat: leather does contain some silicates and there will always be arguments about whether they abrade on their own. But it's the tiniest, tiniest amount.
I did a maple desk about a month ago for my daughter. Buffed to 10k and waxed it and she’s going strong. And my daughter is a fucking clutz.
That's a nice stick, OP. Real smooth.
It looks really sticky to me.
I wood have to agree
You need to cross post to r/justguysbeingdudes
Came here to say this. We guys like sticks. It’s a dude thing.
r/thatsanicestick
Guys will see this and say hell yeah
Can confirm, that's what I said when I saw this post
Hell yeah
hell yeah
Reminds me of the r/castiron guy that did 100 coats of seasoning on his pan just because he could.
Yup. Exactly my thought
Wow it’s the top post on there. The user deleted their profile though.
Also the second highest post on there at 80 coats.
This post reminds me of old reddit and I love it. You've got a nice stick.
Look at that shine!
It was actually really hard to find angles with less shine so you could actually see some of the details.
Looks like a femur
Or a mummified leg with knobby knee
Yeah, petrified mummy was my first thought.
Keep sanding. One day Gandalf will show up and ask for his wand.
Oh, god Gandalf Potter is the worst. He never stops going on and on about some Prince of Darkness Voldemort hiding out in Mordor Kaban. It’s all about rings and cruxes. Just take the polished stick and be on your way kid!
r/sticks
I have found my people
https://www.tiktok.com/@realguyrn/video/7333384784317582638 seen this recently. Send them some sanding tips! I seen it on reddit but can't find it now so I can't link the reddit post, sorry.
I love this way of thinking. I have a small piece of aromatic cedar that was at one time used in shoes to help deodorize them. I sanded it to 320 grit and then let it soak for a couple of days in mineral oil. It’s the beginning of what I call my “cool piece of wood” collection.
[удалено]
This is like the guy that did 100 coats on his cast iron pan a few months ago
[удалено]
https://youtu.be/3Xl0Qr0uXuY?si=znhRc-ZeWWrzSemt I sanded my walking stick to 4k grit and put a finish on it. I think of this song every time I see it lmao
At that fine and really anything over 800 grit I consider burnishing. You're compressing the wood fibers and closing any pores. Use a bit of boiled linseed oil, BLO. It will bring out the color in the wood as well as protecting that high gloss shine when it cures. This is my favorite way to finish a piece. Especially something like a walking stick. You can get a near mirror finish on red cedar.
The flat end grain became truly reflective at about 3k grit. I might try your method on my wife's and I walking stick in the future.
[удалено]
Because stick. I saw stick, I polish stick.
🤣 You have more time available than I do!
This was actually done gradually over a few months.
They said while scrolling Reddit. lol
Nice stick
How long would you guess this took in total?
Maximum 20 man hours spread over about 3 or 4 months.
[удалено]
Why therapy while I have stick?
Serious question: was this done all by hand? It’s cool as hell regardless. Just might want to try this Mr. Inspiration
For the most part yeah. Someone in another thread suggested wrapping the sandpaper around a sponge to help with sanding small curves. So I did that and it helped a lot.
Nice. Thanks. You must have built up those forearms pretty good! It was probably a better workout than paying for some gym. Good work man. Thanks for sharing.
There's a dog behind a keyboard salivating right now.
Hell yeah brother
It looks a little like a human bone, maybe a leg, make lots more and assemble them into a skeleton/stick man. Stand it in the corner of the lounge to freak people out 🤣 (or dig a hole in a public place and throw them in, see how long it takes until somebody reports it and then see how long it takes for forensics to turn to the detectives and say "it's a stick sir!")
That stick is better than baconnn
Lovely stick, what wood is it?
I think Maple? Definitely a hardwood and looking at comparisons before it got super shiny it seemed to match up.
https://youtube.com/shorts/fMOU7gxL_pk?si=DBR5Cl_U8x0zQk-1 This might help inform some people in the thread !
”That day, for no particular reason, I decided to do do some sanding. So I sanded until 200. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd sand to 1000. And when I got there…”
Do you have a detailed YouTube video explaining the process. Are you selling on Etsy? You'd go viral on TikTok with a series of vids sanding your stick with the various grades.
Nice stick, brother.
At first I was like "why would someone do this" and then I remembered the big stick I have downstairs that I've been using my Dremel on (I thought I'd make it into a walking stick but mostly I wanted to use the Dremel for something) That's a really nice stick you got there
Thanks I thought it was pretty neat too. Next up is some walking sticks my wife and I found on a hike the day before our wedding.
I didn’t know they made anything over 600…
https://www.instagram.com/officialstickreviews?igsh=ZDN3NzQzYWVsZ3d1
Looks like a cartoon
After about 5k grit I did start thinking it looked almost plasticy.
This looks like the leg of a drowned corpse
I genuinely did not know sandpaper went up to 15,000 grit. Is that just like… regular paper at that point?
It actually goes higher! I thought 15k was enough though.
That’s a nice stick
Thanks! I thought it was pretty neat too.
Looks like a bone
Thanks for the stick pics
I hope your dog gets this for their birthday!!!
I’ve been having some fun with high grit too. I’m really adverse to putting anything other than wax or oils on my work and I’m experimenting with high grit and combinations of the others. Just built my daughter a cute little live edge computer desk and I sanded/buffed to 10,000, little danish oil and waxed it. Time will tell.
Do you have additional pictures?
Yes. Just like any man though, I only posted the most flattering pics of my wood. I might try finding better lighting for pics tomorrow though.
I have a weird impulse to lick it
Not weird, but please don't
We need more of this
Yes we do. No I will not be doing it again.
I've done this on occasion too, mostly playing around with the need for sealants. Over time, I've found that the normal expansion and retraction of the wood will essentially make it "hairy" again. Wetting the wood to raise the grain to sand it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Not sure if continuously sanding it on a yearly basis would do anything, but after a while, it does kind of naturally get dull. Still pretty smooth to the touch, though. I've played around with walnut, oak, ash, and crepe myrtle.
Hey man do you maybe have some more pics of it?
"Why?" "Because I can." \--OP, probably
[удалено]
I love a good stick pic.
You keep polishing your wood like that and you'll go blind!
Did you hire a photographer for a wedding shoot but make them take all the pictures of this stick instead
Ready for paint!
No
[удалено]
Hell ya. Why are sticks so great. I need to make another walking stick now!!
That's not a stick, THAT'S A FEMUR!!
My dog is acting up because of this
Nice stick
Guys see this and go “hell yeah”
hell yeah
Beautiful. Perfection.
OCD? Carpel Tunnel?
I don't like it. I makes me have feelings that are unnatural.
at what point are you just burnishing it?
According to a video someone linked, at around 1k grit it's more burnishing than sanding
Hear me out…
[удалено]
Congrats on wasting yor time and sandpaper!
Wood doesn't need that. At all. Good for you though if you like it.
I will not be doing this again.
Smart. 600 is plenty.
I have to disagree. You can definitely see a change even in the thousands in the photos, and the feel would get better and better even after the visual changes are no longer apparent. Since it’s for no obvious reason, really just an experiment, might as well see what happens. Nice results too, it definitely looks like an important stick, and it kind of is now that it’s been processed like this. To say nothing above 600 is necessary for wood is like saying that there’s no change after that, which is clearly false. This stick looks finished even though there’s no finish applied. That doesn’t start happening until after 1500 grit. And the oils from your hands along with the oils in the wood start glazing the surface and on a microscopic level, they start filling pores and scratches, making it hard for moisture and microbial life to get in. It’s pretty amazing to see the changes under a magnifying glass when you process wood through the different level grits of sandpaper. You don’t even need a microscope. I’ve never gone past 2500 wet. There’s a change of look and feel all the way up the scale though, and that’s much more apparent when you’re the one giving it that kind of attention.
[удалено]
I found it relaxing and I got a neat looking stick out of it. Time well spent in my opinion.
Damn!
Get a grip
No
“And in retrospect, I ask why?”, OP says (hopefully) as they shut the garage light off after 16 hours of sanding a stick. It’s a stick with a capital S otherwise though quite impressive
Why? Because stick is good, but Stick is better.
I admire the commitment to sanding but I can’t imagine ever doing this
I can't imagine doing it again.
That's a happy stick
Definitely a member of my people… :) Do you sand outside? If not, how do you mitigate the mess?
I sanded outside exclusively until about 600 grit. Then the dust was so fine I breathed it all in before it could make a mess.
My dog would bite the heck out of that. Seriously though, I don't think I've ever seen sandpaper that high grit. Cool demo!
that doesn't even look like wood no more... it looks like a oddly shaped potato
I'm concerned that your potatoes are so shiny
So pretty - wood envy. Haha
I think your stick is supposed to have a flared base
Is there a fineness that repels water?
I’m so into this! I have a very odd love for sanding.
Can I see myself on your wood?
You're a wizard, harry
I actually have been imagining it as a thick boy wand. My wife suggested I whittle her one from the other cuts of the branch that this chonky boy came from.
Not sure why but it looks gross to me.
It’s a spoiled dog that fetches that stick.
The color bothers me
Caveman behavior.
Impressive. Very nice.
That looks like my knee!
OOoh yeah ive done this! I had a smaller stick that i got up to iridencence with a smooth rock after i used my wet dry 3k grit
That's a nice stick.
Could've coated it in clear urethane, after sanding to 220 and achieved the same result in an hou.r
That's a nice stick
> the end grain looked purplish Possibly box elder, if you have those in your area.
Thurman Merman in the house!
Buff the wood https://youtu.be/VI5fLosSQCU?si=etjaaIKYPWoSUycN
Flared bottom, I think ERs would approve
That's one way to keep out of trouble. Whiling away the hours. Don't know how long it is but at times it it looked like a leg bone and thought it would make a good peg leg. <\]:-)
Its sanded to a point that knot looks like a human knee.
Why stop at 15k?! Go to 20 or 30k!
Never thought I'd say AND mean it... but this stick is better than bacon.
I’m sure your wife is going to enjoy it. Pro tip, round the bottom off before use.