"dpb" wrote in message

I see what lead you astray is that you apparently
interpreted the first pictures as showing vertical
sanding scratches and the dark areas as remaining
original finish instead of as the veneer substrate
cross-grain and the heavier absorption of her applied
stain in those areas. W/ that as a starting point, then
I can see your continuing down that road.

If you are talking to me, yes that is the way I interpreted them. And I
still do, sorta. I agree she sanded through a veneer, don't believe she
made the scratch marks and I don't believe they are grain on a ply
substrate. Consider...

There are two basic ways to make a curved board: bend it or saw it.

Bending...
1. One can bend a solid board. I sure wouldn't try to make that apron that
way, don't know if a manufacturer would or not, doubt it.

2. Laminate it from several thinner boards. Easy to do, this wasn't
laminated according to the edge of the apron.

3. Make multiple kerfs across it leaving a thickness that will bend easily.
This *could *have been done that way, kerfs would show on top and bottom of
apron. The table top would cover the top ones but the kerfs on the apron
bottom would need to be covered in some manner. A solid piece could have
been applied to the bottom; the whole area below the decorative, horizontal
kerf could have been glued on to cover them but - judging from her not so
great photo of the apron edge - I don't think so.

Sawing
1. Numerous chords could have been bandsawed out and then joined to make the
apron

2. Numerous rectangular boards could have been joined into a polygon and
that polygon then sawed to round.
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I think the thing was sawed. With either sawing method, there are two
things that need to be addressed. The first is that the round edge is going
to have tool marks and that it will need (probably) tweaking to get a nice,
smooth curve. To do that, I'd use a belt sander with coarse paper and I'd
hold it vertically; if I were making several - or if I were a
manufacturer - I'd rig some way to afix the rough apron to a turn table and
rotate it against a fixed belt sander. That's how I think the vertical
scratch marks were made.

People kept talking about the vertical marks being the grain in a piece of
lauan plywood. I could not fathom why someone would make a nice apron and
then stick on a piece of plywood. I still can't but I *can* see the need
for a piece of *veneer* because the second thing that needs fixing is that
there are numerous joints that would show; additionally, the grain of the
joined pieces would be less than pretty (unless they had a lot of lumber
available and went to extraordinary lengths to select the pieces to be
joined, a circumstance I strongly doubt). To fix that, I'd stick on a piece
of veneer. No need to remove the belt sander scratches, they will be
covered up, all that is needed is a smooth surface.

If I were Karen, I would still try scraping...with care, the scratch marks
could be removed at the expense of less than a great curve in their area.
The difficulty would come from not cutting theough more of the (probably)
very thin veneer and exposing more. There is always going to be a
difference in appearance between the original surface and the cut through
area; whether or not that is acceptable, only she can decide. If not, there
is always paint.

--

dadiOH
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