Most Blender users already had some kind of smoothing problems. With these users in mind, Olivier from Feeblemind has published a tutorial, teaching how to solve smoothing problems. The tutorial is very instructive and a must read for new users. Some of the subjects of the tutorial: Normals, Double faces, Set Smooth, Set Solid, Auto Smooth and the Edge Split Modifier.
Olivier says:
I wrote a tutorial intended for beginners, explaining the basis of smoothing
in Blender, and how to avoid the most common pitfalls that are the inverted
normals and the doubles.
If you want to check out the tutorial, visit this link.
