Uh??? What???  As I am sure you are thinking I must have lost my mind with such a statement I would like to take this opportunity to explain my madness.

“The human hand has a particularly refined sense of touch. According to Smithsonian magazine, researchers found that our hand can detect a dot just three microns high. (A human hair has a diameter of 50 to 100 microns.) However, by “using a texture rather than a dot, the researchers found the hand can detect roughness just 75 nanometers high”—a nanometer being one thousandth of a micron! Such remarkable sensitivity is attributed to about 2,000 touch receptors in each fingertip.”  So what you say???  

Well first off those numbers are some extremely tight tolerances and sure your joinery needs to fit tight but I think many of us overlook are sense of touch as a quality control tool.  Often times a defect or blemish can be extremely apparent to the touch when only just visible to the eye.  Taking this approach to the finer details of your woodworking will, without a doubt, make your projects standout from the rest and no where is this more apparent than at the finishing stages. 

Try this on your next project.  At each stage in your project close your eyes and run your hands over your entire project.  Does it flow?  What do you feel?  To be honest you shouldn’t feel much of anything and if you do then it’s a great time to fix the flaw.  No, changes in joinery, milling marks, tear out, end grain, saw marks, fasteners, dust nibs, runs in the finish…. the list goes on.

Look at your best work.  Now feel it.  Look at your worst work.  Now feel it.  Now tell me there’s not a  difference! 

RJ 

Quote found here