Home-maintenance expert Darcy Westlind share tips on how to sand various types of wood.
- There are many types of sandpaper. For example, aluminum oxide is light brown in color and is for general purposes.
- Flint is a fine-grade, dulls quickly and is only good for small projects. It works well on sticky surfaces that may quickly clog other types of paper.
- Garnet is red in color, wears quickly, and is good for hand sanding.
- Silicon carbide is a black, fine-grit paper that is used for wet or dry sanding. It's perfect for fine sanding as well as for sanding between coats of finish.
- Serrated is a long-lasting, but expensive, type of paper and is perfect for working with soft woods.
- Sandpaper is available in different grades. A 50 to 60 grade is coarse and is used for rough sanding, shaping and removing paint. A grade of 80 to 100 is considered medium and should be used after rough sanding or on previously painted surfaces.
- The 120 to 150 grades are fine and should be used for final sanding before applying a finish. Grades 160 to 240 are very fine and are used to smooth primer and paint. Extra-fine grades fall in the 280 to 320 range, and are used to smooth between undercoats.
- The finest grades are superfine and are in the 360 to 400 range. Superfine texture paper is used for an ultra-smooth finish when wet-sanding varnish or lacquer.
- Sand with the grain to avoid leaving scratches on the wood.
- A sanding block is great for flat edges, but for rounded edges, use a sanding sponge. If a sanding sponge is not available, wrap sandpaper around a deck of cards and hold the vertical edge on the deck of the curved surface. The cards will conform to the surface.
- Nail files are great for sanding small or hard-to-reach areas.
- Put an old sock on like a glove and rub the surface to check if sanding is complete. If the sock catches on anything, sand the surface down farther.
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