Thread: Advice on sanding small gaps on a carving

I fixed your post so the image shows.

Good luck with the sanding.

Thanks Bob. It seemed to come up in preview, but I appreciate the fix.

Depending on how much sanding needs to be done, a small diamond burr in a rotary tool (Dremel, Foredom, WeCheer, etc.) could be used. I have a large set of burrs I got from Woodcraft that has 150, 240, 400, 600 grits, each in 30 different shapes. WoodRiver - Diamond Tip Carving Burr Set, 120 piece From the photo, it doesn't look like you need any heavy-duty stuff... If you aren't planning to do a lot of this, you can probably get by with one these: Rotary Tool Kit, 80 Pc. I know some wood carvers who buy these, use for a few months until they wear out, then throw them away and get another...

Claude

Originally Posted by ClaudeF

Depending on how much sanding needs to be done, a small diamond burr in a rotary tool (Dremel, Foredom, WeCheer, etc.) could be used. I have a large set of burrs I got from Woodcraft that has 150, 240, 400, 600 grits, each in 30 different shapes. WoodRiver - Diamond Tip Carving Burr Set, 120 piece From the photo, it doesn't look like you need any heavy-duty stuff... If you aren't planning to do a lot of this, you can probably get by with one these: Rotary Tool Kit, 80 Pc. I know some wood carvers who buy these, use for a few months until they wear out, then throw them away and get another...

Claude

Aha! Thanks Claude, I had looked at burrs, I have been using the one in the dremel carving kit for smoothing, but hadn't found any grits, most appreciated! I do some in the round work as well, so they will come in handy.

I use several things to get into corners.

1. A "sanding finger" which uses little sanding belts of different grits.
If you clean it with a crepe rubber stick, belt #1 will last forever.
Lee Valley sells them, I recall there are at least two different sizes.

2. Different sized punches like nail sets to push down the fuzzies.

3. Rifflers. Very fine curved files. Aurioux are hand stitched. The random patterns do not leave grooves in the wood
like a machine stitched rasp/riffler is bound to do. Several tooth sizes and really expensive Lee Valley again.

4. Hide all my carving sins by texturing the entire surface. I like a #5 sweep.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

I use several things to get into corners.

1. A "sanding finger" which uses little sanding belts of different grits.
If you clean it with a crepe rubber stick, belt #1 will last forever.
Lee Valley sells them, I recall there are at least two different sizes.

2. Different sized punches like nail sets to push down the fuzzies.

3. Rifflers. Very fine curved files. Aurioux are hand stitched. The random patterns do not leave grooves in the wood
like a machine stitched rasp/riffler is bound to do. Several tooth sizes and really expensive Lee Valley again.

4. Hide all my carving sins by texturing the entire surface. I like a #5 sweep.

Awesome advice Robson, thanks!