The Most Underrated Woodworking Skill: Surface Prep and Why It Matters
There is no shortage of impressive woodworking skill on display online. You see tight dovetails, complex joinery, elegant curves, exotic wood species, and furniture that looks like it fell out of a museum. Yet buried beneath all of that visible craftsmanship is a skill that makes or breaks the final result: surface preparation.
Surface prep is the quiet skill. It does not show up well in thumbnails or short clips. It is slow, repetitive, dusty, and unglamorous. However, it affects everything the viewer does see: clarity of grain, depth of color, smoothness of finish, the way a board catches light, and even how clean joinery lines appear.
New woodworkers often underestimate surface prep. They focus on building faster or learning new joinery techniques while sanding and scraping become an afterthought. The result is a project that looks dull or hazy even though the construction was sound. When you understand what really happens at the surface level, the importance becomes obvious.
Wood fibers compress, tear, bruise, shear, and fracture when cut. Planers leave tiny scallops. Jointers leave subtle washboarding. End grain can look polished one moment and furry the next. High-speed sanders generate heat that can smudge resins and oils on certain hardwoods. All of these micro-failures remain invisible until finish hits the wood. That is when the grain reveals everything you missed.
Surface prep has three major components:
• leveling and flattening the surface
• refining the surface to an appropriate grit
• avoiding contamination before finishing
Leveling handles machine marks and high spots. Refinement brings clarity and light. Contamination control prevents blotches, fisheyes, and adhesion issues. Each stage affects the next.
You do not need to sand everything to extremely high grits. Many species look best when taken only to 180 or 220 before finishing. Others respond beautifully to scraping and burnishing. Some require grain raising between grits to avoid fuzzing. The goal is not maximum grit, but maximum clarity.
In my own work, surface prep is where projects transform. You see the wood stop looking like lumber and start looking like furniture. Grain becomes glassy and dimensional. Finish flows out smoothly.
I am excited to share that beginning in late January 2026 I will be offering my own homemade finish for sale on WyomingWorkshop.com. This two-part finish, called Grain Gravy, was formulated to reward careful surface preparation by enhancing color and bringing out the natural warmth of the wood without creating a heavy or plastic-like film. It has become my preferred all-around finish for most indoor projects.
The takeaway is simple. If you want your work to look like it came from the hands of a skilled craftsperson, spend more time where no one is looking: preparing the surface.
Good woodworking is quiet woodworking.
