I made selections of cherry for all the bits that have got to get glued up for my office: the desktop, all four parts, the seat of my bench, and the solid wood sides of the cabinet(s). I have far from an unlimited supply of clamps, so I’ll have to do them one at a time. If I do one a day, which is unlikely, it’ll take about two weeks. Just for the glue up. That amount of sanding actually makes my guts feel watery. Sanding is my least favorite bit, and that’s a great deal of it.
I just went to buy sandpaper as I wrote that, took a quick break to spend a cool $100 on sandpaper. I’ve certainly been feeling it lately, the shit economy. At the local hardware store it’s $15 for a ten pack. It’s $48 for a 50 pack on the internet. It’s difficult to be frugal with consumable tools like that, though it has occured to me to learn to get a planed finish but $100 / year seems pretty reasonable, actually.
I recall a story from my old teacher, he suggested that he had only ever met one person capable of an acceptable planed finish. He was Korean, some ancient zen master. That does not feel paritcularly within reach.
So sanding it is.
I’ve considered bringing it to a local cabinet shop. They have things aptly named “Time savers” there. Basically gigantic automatic sanders you can feed boards through. You can pay per the pass. I calculated once how many square feet I could sand per hour. It’s not a lot, and these tabletops are nothing compared to the drawer fronts and strip-panels I’ve got to make before this office is called done.
There’s something nice about laying out an absolutely overwhelming amount of work to chew away at. I’m in no rush. That pile of timber represents hours of Blindboy, countless thoughts, daydreams, and aspirations.
It’s a bit of a meme, the father finding solace in his shop. I’m not quite there yet, but I’m getting to it. Already I’ve been finding considerable comfort in chores, in doing things to improve the house. That combined with a bit of privacy and a bit of quiet...I get it.