Thread: Best brand of wet-and-dry paper

Hi Arron,

I don't know what scary sharp is. I've been going to Supacheap and buying W&D sandpaper for $1 a sheet. Tried the bunnies yellow sandpaper and I hate it with a passion. Am now trying the material-backed blue and dark red sand paper ~ $5 a metre which is available from better wood stores, eg Garry Pie's at Currumbin, Ken's in Toowoomba etc. Have only spent about 1 hour using the material-backed SP so can't really say how good it is yet, especially considering how I'm so used to the other type.

cheers
RufflyRustic

Norton is pretty good and that is the $1 a sheet type that ruffly is talking about from Supercheap, Carbatec sells SIA from memory and that is really good, on par with the cloth backed stuff. It is hard to get cloth backed in anything past 400 grit and 400 is often hard to get. I wold advise that you get all of your paper from the one manufacturer, I was having problems with sanding marks on some bowls, eventually traced it back to me changing abrasive manufacturer and having only a partial match, there is enough difference between manufacturers that this can be significant.

Anyway I hope that helps

Using mainly Norton papers in my guitar building....all sorts of grades from 80 down to 2000. Sometimes Ill use cheap stuff for coarse work but fine work is always with Norton.

Kiwigeo: where do you get the fine grade Norton from?

I got some 1200 and 2000 sheets from MIK, about $1.50 per sheet from memory (not sure if it's Norton).

For scary-sharp I have found the the finer grades invariably get cut by the blade on the forward stroke. My solution is to turn the jig around (I use the veritas mark I sharpening jig), and press down with my thumbs as I push the blade forward. I then lift the blade for the return. This has the added benefit that any sections of the paper that are insufficiently glued down don't affect the sharpening angle (see pic).

Do other people get this, or am I using lousy paper?

Originally Posted by zenwood

.....
Do other people get this....?

Doh! That's what scary-sharp means......

going to crawl back in my box now.....

RR

Wendy,

Here is a link to a description of the Scary Sharp sharpening system.

This is (the mercifully) condensed version.

http://www.shavings.net/SCARY.HTM#condensed

Originally Posted by rufflyrustic

Doh! That's what scary-sharp means......

going to crawl back in my box now.....

RR

Sorry Ruffly: Here's the even more condensed version:

Scary-sharp 1. n.: glueing sheets of sandpaper to glass to get a cheap and ever-flat replacement for sharpening stones.

You can come out of your box. Come on...

Originally Posted by zenwood

Do other people get this, or am I using lousy paper?

Zen, I found the only way to stop cutting up the paper was to dispense with the jig. After a few hours practise (about 8 hours, probably) I get pretty much the same results hand-holding as using a jig. It will only get better with time.

Anyway, I put this post up because I have noticed there are big differences between how well the various brands of paper do the job - but havent been consistent in noting which are the good ones and which are not.

Arron

Originally Posted by zenwood

Kiwigeo: where do you get the fine grade Norton from?

I got some 1200 and 2000 sheets from MIK, about $1.50 per sheet from memory (not sure if it's Norton).

Zen,

My supply of finer grade paper came from New Zealand....some place in Wellington from memory. Picked it up on last trip back there.

MIK is the main place I go to for local supplies......havent found anywhere with better service.

Hi, I'm back, the box was cold, damp and dark.... and lonely.


thanks CraigB and Zenwood, have read the info carefully,

cheers
RR