sanding grit for rough cedar

[woodinville guy]

I'm building a pergola out of rough cedar and I starting thinking about what grit I should use for it. I haven't worked with cedar too much. Since the posts are very rough I should sand it at least some but by how much? I was thinking maybe 60 grit. I'll be staining it of course.

[Norm in Fujino]

#60 is coarse enough to use for shaping; if you're going for any pre-finish smoothness, I'd use #125. --But I don't know how rough your wood is to begin with.

[woodinville guy]

#60 is coarse enough to use for shaping; if you're going for any pre-finish smoothness, I'd use #125. --But I don't know how rough your wood is to begin with.

The wood is not super rough but it is splintery, maybe 60 is too coarse.

[dbhost]

I've worked with a bunch of Cedar, it is awfully soft, but very durable in the weather... 60 grit will strip a LOT of material really fast... I honestly usually just give it a couple of LIGHT passes in the planer and call it good... If / when I need to sand it, I use at least 120 grit if not finer, nothing coarser than 120 though...