making finer sandpaper

D

dogstar

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Jan 23, 2011
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Has anyone made fine sand paper by rubbing two sheets together? It works well with the black sandpaper.
 
In essence, rubbing anything relatively hard against the black sandpaper (a.k.a. silicon carbide) will do that. Silicon carbide's grit is known to 'fracture' under use. The particles get smaller, but they stay sharp & jagged (like glass). This results in the effective grit becoming finer as you use it. It's not so effective with aluminum oxide paper, as it's very hard also, but doesn't fracture in the same manner.

I've held on to well-used sheets of finer grits that I use, simply for this reason. The fine grits really get better with use, making for a higher polish.

As for rubbing two sheets together, just make sure they're both the same grit. Otherwise, you'll cross-contaminate the finer one with coarse grit from the other.
 
Does anyone buy their sand paper online? Maybe some local stores don't have all the grits you need to get a mirrored polish edge.
 
DrivebyTrucker said:
Does anyone buy their sand paper online? Maybe some local stores don't have all the grits you need to get a mirrored polish edge.
Click to expand...

Woodcraft (stores or online) carries the Norton brand, in a full range of grits (220 through 2000). There's also Amazon. I also just bought some 3M Micron Polishing Paper in grit sizes down to 1 micron (thru Amazon). Either 3M or Norton are high quality, no worries about buying them online.
 
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