Sweeping

Some will say that sandpaper is unnatural and that what is necessary is to smooth wood down with the edge of a blade - they will say that sandpaper tears at the fibers of the wood, creating an unnatural violence.  My feeling is that with sandpaper, the wood fibers are massaged, similar to how our muscles are massaged where well-practiced hands dig into those surprising points they discover...  Sometimes there is a feeling of a bit of pretty deep, unrelenting pain, but we make our way through it even as the hands continue to explore the grains of our body's muscles structures to eventually smooth them and finally sweep away the last final touch.

With wood, with sandpaper (and yes, with a blade also) the grains are explored in a similar way, but with sandpaper an interesting thing begins to happen especially when you get past 320 grit.  For some reason, 320 grit is another one of those defining moments, the end of a particular phase.  At 320, the surface is pretty much defined and all irregularities and imperfections are either there or not.  It seems that no amount of sanding with 400 onwards will completely take away a split or crack or ding, or nick or scratch...  You have to turn around, go back, revisit the heavier grits and once again make your way to that moment, and then continue onwards to the last sweep of the smoothest sandpaper, maybe cloth, maybe a hand itself.  Like waves washing upon a shoreline, as if exploring the smoothness of sands as they sweep upon their farthest reaches...