Ooops -- one more thing.

On the double stool, I had a disaster with the grain filler: despite having weighted and staked down the tarps enclosing my temporary workspace, a monsoon-like storm blew through and ripped the tarp from its moorings, soaking the grain-filled top of the double.

When I put the finish on, the grain filler came up almost white, in contrast to the honey-colored wood around it. Once I knew I had to take the surface down, I used a sander starting with 80 grit -- wanted to aggressively remove a good 1/8 inch of wood to get below the damage and let it all dry out (which it's doing now).

There were one or two stubborn spots, and I considered taking a small kanna to them (maybe 34mm), but was too afraid of tear-out, and so stuck with my trusty two sanders. (I use a Festool circular/variable orbit to remove lots of wood, and a Porter Cable 330 palm sander for the really fine work.)

So, yes, in that case I was very worried about tear-out. But so far, so good -- just no blades to refine the endgrain. The wood's too old and unpredictable.

The sides, of all of them, however, were planed rather than sanded down, then given a really fine sanding to make sure they're perfectly smooth to sit on and have no bits that'll catch clothing, bare legs, etc.