The arched top door - Minster, Oh - sanding it all down

Here are some pictures of the sanding process before staining and finishing. I have a total of a day and a half wrapped up in just sanding. This is an important step to get the look and feel of the door just right, and alot of the finish look depends on how well the sanding is done. The first picture is a "before" picture, and then there are two "after" pictures (one of each side).
An easy way to determine if you are sanding everything to one level, is to make light pencil marks on the surface, and continue to sand them out until they come off evenly. It is a good and simple technique, although it takes longer with white oak because it is such a hard wood. I prefer Norton sandpaper over 3M - just seems to last a little longer...