Thread: Silicon Carbide vs Aluminium Oxide w/d paper

Can anyone enlighten me on differences between these w/d sandpapers please? Thank you

I hope I answer what what you wanted to know. Here is my take on the two types of sandpaper pertaining to sanding metal.



Silicon Carbide W/D

• will abrade steel
• works well with most lubricants (water or oil)
• readily available in higher grits

Aluminum Oxide

• will abrade steel
• most AO paper will work well with most non-water lubricants. (contrary to the prevailing wisdom AO papers work well with oil, mineral spirits as a lubricant)
• readily available in the lower grits

Most any SC wet dry paper will work great. With AO I am a bit more picky, I make sure that I get good quality coated abrasive made by a good company such as 3M, Norton, or Mirka. 3M's 216-U paper is my favorite kind of AO paper.


The glue and paper that is used with most AO paper is not very water resistant. When sanding by hand I tend to use AO for the lower grits then move to SC for the higher grits.


Charlie

The reason was that I have used Mirka W/D paper to lap my stones and it did not last at all on harder stones. Then I used no-name W/D and results were much better. I wondered if that was due to diferent bonding agent or different scratch pattern of the abrading media.

I wish I had something smart to say but I do not. I am glad you found a sandpaper that works for flattening. Mirka does make a quality product, I am not sure what was up.

Charlie

I know you just found something but 3m sandblaster eats everything including barber hones- worked a lot better than 4 or 5 other papers I tried. Worth a mention.

Don't know if this will help, but Buehler and Allied High Tech Products both make what is called metallurgical paper. Both silicon carbide, but EXTREMELY uniform grit. Not cheep, but I get a lot of mileage out of it using it with both water and light oil. (I like the oil better, seems to make the paper last longer, and gives a better finish.)