Question: Sand or Scrape?

[TWS]

I got this very nice set of Quilted Maple for a project (I posted a picture of the wood on ABPW) and it has been planed with a LOT of tear out where the grain reverses. My question is: should I put this through a wide belt sander to get rid of the tears or scrape or some combination of these?

Size of each piece of wood (I have two) is 9.25 inch by 22 inches. Thickness is slightly less than 1/2 inch and I'll be happy if the result is at least 3/8 inch. I'll be finishing with Danish or Tung oil.

TWS

[Liam]

If you have a drum sander that is the way to go. I just used a random orbital sander to sand a curly maple coffee table and it took forever. Ahhh, the price of perfection.

[Nate Perkins]

Either sanding or scraping would work. If you have a drum sander, then that's certainly the way to go.

You probably know that you can reduce some of the tearout by using very sharp blades and by dampening/wetting the surface prior to sending it through the planer.