MIMF

Hi All
I’m curious what techniques you may use in insuring a flat and level surface on your solid bodies so that later in the painting process you have no highs and lows.
Do you use raking light?
Do you use a guide coat?
If you find a high or a low, what’s your approach in leveling it?

Always use a sanding block. This alone will eliminate most high and low spots. After that, use a raking light to check and double check. Sometimes a bit of mineral spirits or a sealer coat will bring out some imperfections and then you can try to finesse the leveling by taking down the area around the low spots (unless you want to take down the entire surface to match the low spot - depends on how big or noticeable it is).

A flat scraper is really helpful and probably quicker than sanding, some woods are easier than others, ash ALWAYS requires grain filling, if you use sanding sealer then you can also use a scraper over that (gently), I get so frustrated with sand paper, the quality these days seems so poor, I've even used Stanley knife blades as a scraper on the final coats of lacquer.

Its always good to begin with some sort of good/reassuring foundation for your body blank. There is a local custom wood milling business nearby who have a large thickness sander. I bring them a dozen assorted donuts and coffee and they run my body blank through their machine a few times.