oak coffee table

[Col]

Hi,
This is my first real project. I'm making an oak coffee table from worktop offcuts. I've reached the stage of dry assembling it and am about to start finishing.

My plan was sand starting with 80 grit - trying to do as much as I could before glueing up, and then use higher grit for final sanding. The final finish will be danish oil to match an existing kitchen worktop.

I've read is the forum about sanding sealers and grain fillers - are these necessary and when should they be used?

I also have some tear out on one or two of the staves that I'm not going to be able to plane/sand out - what would be the best way to 'fill' these to give a good finish please?

Thanks, Colin

 

[AnselmFraser]

There are plenty of places on this forum that are discussing the different types of oil finish , so you can look at them .I would suggest not to use a grain filler because I like the oak to look like wood and the more you fill the grain the more plasticy it will look . On the question of what todo about tear out again with the style of the piece of furniture I feel it should look hand done so do not worry about minor imperfections , just cabinet scrape and sand a slight hollow so that it is smooth , you will see the imperfection but no one else will notice if you use a plastic filler it will look terrible .