Hand Abrasives Round-up

3M’s Sandblaster sanding sponges and plain wet/dry sandpaper stand out.

The abrasives—representing a wide variety of types and coarseness—were tested on taped-off portions of a hollow-core lauan veneer door that had six coats of varnish on it.

Back in the May 15, 2001, issue, PS published the results of an exhaustive test of sandpaper. (Good times, good times!) We used 80-grit disks on a random-orbital sander with moderate hand pressure, and although we didn’t even bother to test the cheap paper—good sandpaper isn’t too expensive, and it’s infinitely better than the flimsy bargain stuff—after many disks and many hours, it was hard to choose winners. We picked three top papers: Carborundum’s Premier Red, Norton’s Blue (A975), and 3M’s Imperial. The Imperial earned the crown because it performed well on all five of our test surfaces. …