Sanded wood surfaces contain irregularities caused by both the sanding process and the anatomy, so the anatomical roughness, which is independent of any machining operation, must be excluded from measurements of surface irregularities if the processing roughness is to be properly evaluated. This paper investigates the effect of earlywood and latewood on the roughness parameters of oak sanded with P180 and spruce and beech sanded with P120 grit size. The wood anatomy was excluded from the roughness profiles using a method based on the Abbot-curve. Latewood was smoother than earlywood with the greatest ratio in oak, followed by spruce and beech. The ratio of latewood to earlywood processing roughness.described by several roughness parameters was in an inverse relationship with the density ratio of these growth areas reported in literature. The roughness parameters in mix areas of latewood and earlywood seemed to be related to species density. A mean of the roughness parameters measured locally in both areas of earlywood and latewood was a good approximation of the surface roughness.