The processing and manufacturing of wood products commonly ends in finishing operations with the perceived quality of the product depending mostly on the finishing processes as well as the preceding surface preparation. Consequently, it is of great importance to achieve the best possible surface quality prior to the application of finishes. The objective of this research is to provide the necessary information to understand the effect of key process parameters involved in the peripheral sanding of wood on the resultant surface quality. In this experiment, a linear-trend resistant split-plot design was implemented to evaluate the impact of factor-level combinations of the following input variables: wood species, spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, grit size, tooling resilience, and wood grain orientation. The results show grit size, tooling resilience, and wood grain orientation to be significant for all species considered in the study. Feed rate showed significance for white oak and eastern white pine; and spindle speed was only statistically important for white oak. The surface descriptors that were sensitive to the machining conditions were Ra, Rq, and Rz, while the descriptors Rsk and Rku did not show any particular trends.