How to Finish End Grain? – Viewer Question

November 16, 2009 by thewoodwhisperer · 24 Comments
Filed under: Viewer Questions 

This question comes from Steve who asks:

Hi Marc, I like this site. I have learned a lot from it. I am new to this woodworking thing. My next project is going to be an entertainment center which will basically be two tall cabinets with doors. The doors will be stiles on the sides with a tenonned rail at the top and bottom with a recessed panel that sits in a routed “slot”. My question is what do you do to the ends of the stiles to make them look good? I have built some doors as a test and the end grain just soaks up the stain and doesn’t look good. I have similar doors in my kitchen and they look really nice, but they were done professionally. Any help is appreciated.

And my response:

End grain is one of those things that can really bite you in the butt if you don’t prep your projects properly. Many times, you finish sanding and everything looks and feels great! But then you apply the finish and all of a sudden your project looks like it was made from two different woods! The end grain soaked up so much finish/stain that it now appears to be a much darker color. Since the end grain is on a different face, where shadows can sometimes play tricks on the eye, you can usually get away with this color discrepancy and few people will ever notice. But there are some areas where this end grain issue is much more obvious and you absolutely must take precautions.

It really all comes down to sanding prep. End grain will always soak up more finish than face grain, and the result will be a darker color. But if you sand it to a higher grit, it tends to burnish the surface and limits the absorption of finish. The result is a lighter color that more closely matches the face grain. So if you plan on sanding the project to 180 grit, I would sand the end grain to 320. That will greatly improve the results.

But here’s the catch: end grain does not sand as easily or as quickly as face grain. So you might be wondering, how do I know when I have sanded enough?? Well, if you recall in our recent Keepsake Box video, I explained my system for sanding end grain. Here’s an excerpt for your convenience:

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