As you’re wet sanding, keep checking, to see the progress.
In the shot above, you can see some areas are still glossy, the sand paper hasn’t broken the glaze yet. You will want to continue, sanding the entire surface, even what does look adequately sanded. You want to bring the entire surface down to the part that has not been touched..
Here you see a correctly sanded surface..
While I’m thinking about it….. it is not necessary to begin with 300, then advance to 400, then 500, 600, 800, 1000, 2000, 2,000,000… grit… once you have sanded to around 800 that’s fine…. I usually start with 600, follow up with 800 and begin polishing.
All the higher grits do is make polishing go a bit faster, at the expense of additional sanding, so you get to decide, more sanding, or more polishing. A finer grit paper will NOT guarantee a shinier gloss. That is accomplished with the polishing.
Compound curves and rounded surfaces can be done by hand holding the paper..
On the back of the neck, since it’s not a compound curve, I use the block again to “level” any surface ”Orange peal”. Then I’ll go over it all by hand, with 600 grit using very small circular motions, this gives the back the patina of years of playing. Once the areas of the neck that get polished are done, I give it a coat of good quality wax.. that way the neck feels as smooth as any well played instrument.
I hold it up in the light to see that there are no spots that have been missed..
Tomorrow…. I’ll polish it.
Ron Kirn