Sandpaper – All You Want to Know About Sanding and Sandpaper
Try out on the following True-False statements, all pertaining to sanding and sandpaper:
All sandpaper is the same.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Quality varies greatly from brand to brand. Top American brands such as 3M and Norton are always reliable, but some imports are nearly worthless.
After just a few seconds of use the grit starts to fall off and the paper backing it is ”glued” to starts cracking and tearing. The problem seems especially bad in the coarser grades. Not all imported papers are like this, however. I’ve had good luck with Sungold, for example.
Buying in bulk saves money.
True, buying in bulk from a discount supplier can save you money. But only if you take care of the paper once you buy it.
If, on the other hand, you let a 50-sheet pack of sandpaper sit around in a damp basement for a few months, it may become soggy, begin to curl or lose its grit. Then, when you try to dry it out, it turns brittle and falls apart.
It’s best to store your paper in a zipper-type plastic bag, under a weighted board to keep it flat.
Sandpaper gets finer the longer you use it.
Not really. It just gets duller. When this happens your work slows to a crawl. And instead of cutting, the paper tends to burnish the wood so it won’t take stains evenly and you get a blotchy finish. Always work with fresh paper. The job will go faster and look better.
Always sand with the grain.
This is usually a good rule to follow, but there is one time when it pays to break it, and that’s just after raising the grain.
What’s raising the grain? An old trick for getting a supersmooth finish, especially if you plan to use water-based stains, paints or varnishes.
As you may have noticed, any time you apply one of these water-based finishes to bare wood, it tends to make the fibers swell, and millions of tiny whiskers stand up, creating a stubbly surface.
The solution to this is to swab the wood with a barely damp sponge, just before finishing. Naturally, this will bring the whiskers up. But if you give your work a few minutes to dry, you can sand the whiskers off using a few light strokes and some 220 grit paper.
When you do this, however, don’t sand perfectly parallel to the grain, or you’ll simply press many of the whiskers back down. Instead, sand at a slight angle – as shown in the accompanying sketch.
Sanding wood with superfine paper helps you get a supersmooth finish.
With hard, fine grained woods like maple or cherry, you can go to 320 paper if you like, but if you are working with soft woods, like pine, anything finer than 220 is a waste of time. You can’t polish a brick.
Orbital sanders leave ugly circular swirl marks.
Not really. I’ve tried to create swirl marks on purpose and found it’s nearly impossible unless you use very coarse sandpaper and bear down hard on the sander.
If you use a good sander that runs at 10,000 orbits per minute or higher, and stick to 80 grit paper and higher, swirl marks should not be a problem.
You can sharpen scissors by using them to cut sandpaper.
Sure- And you can sharpen a knife by using it to cut bricks.
Where do all these myths come from?
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