How can I polish a cube of cut wood

[Dean Brown]

Starting from a cube cut with a chainsaw (so its rough), supposing I wanted plane, sand and polish the 6 sides to make a beautiful ornamental piece, tha shows the patterns well inside the wood. Just something to look at, that's all. I'd appreciate a few tips on how best to go about this. I am planning to plane the faces, then sand down until I'm using the finest paper. But I'm not sure about the cross-cut ends, if its even possible to do this on those two sides, or on any side if its cut out of a knot.

Any suggestions welcomed.

-Dean

[Tom]

Build a fixture to hold the rough cube, and use a backer piece when planing the end grain? Tom Work at your leisure!

[Wilson Lamb]

I think there's a real danger of the end grain grabbing and damaging the planer, but I haven't tried it. Of course we don't know the size of the cube.

Belt sander?? Wils>

[Ba r r y]

Planer?

A low angle hand plane and a cabinet scraper should work fine on the end grain.

This sounds like a project begging for sharp hand tools. I'd like to see pictures of it.

Barry

[Prometheus]

Depending on how big it is, I'd probably do the initial smoothing on a belt sander to hog off most of the rough stuff, then use a cabinet scraper to finish it off. It's certainly possible to smooth and display endgrain, though how well it will look is going to depend on the species of wood. You're probably going to want to use a sealer before applying any stain to the end grain.

My .02

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[George]

Well, the heat you generate power sanding would certainly make a lot of end checks.

Planing is the answer. Did some nice annual ring demos for one of our science methods teachers using a LN low angle smoother.

Don't oil, shellac for best definition.

Good luck with the radial splits.

[Dean Brown]

The blocks are around 2x6x6 inches. So you guys recommend a hand plane rather than an electric? I already have a dewalt electric and its great, I have just never tried it on anything like this. Thanks all, I'll give an update one day:)

-Dean

[bridger]

you started with a chainsaw? so it's green wood?