David Weaver
I wonder how much of that work was actually sanding.

My real objection to sanding isn't really the sanding, it's laziness but on top of that, the fact that most amateur makers starting out can't resist sanding lines off of work and thinking that a continuous lineless piece is more visually interesting than one with lines.

I frequented a guitar making forum for a very short period of time, and then left - the work there wouldn't have been stimulating to many of us. Much of it was sanded absolutely to death (whereas the neck treatment is wonderful, and it would feel nice on a large open surface if the wood allowed (like an oiled neck through bass guitar), quite often, every single crisp line is sanded off of a modern guitar.

Once you get to the late 1800s and dovetailed furniture factory is common, I'd suspect there is some labor vs. paper cost going on - that it was cheaper to sand because the cost of labor was lower and sanding is easier to do on a power assisted basis than planing.

Not contending that chippendale's production didn't include sanding, but I wonder how much was done with milled tooth type files, etc, before getting there.

Stanley makes a plane that would've planed derek's drawer fronts pretty easily, but it may not be that widespread in australia. You could still sand there, but even with sanding, maximum laziness (and preservation of lines and dimension) appears to be achieved with planing as well as possible first.