# the history of sandpaper. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 17, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600 "2004-10-17T00:47:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600/21 "2004-10-17T17:55:30Z")
> [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](#): > > Exactly. Handplanes have been around since the Romans, and artistic renderings of building and cabinetmaking and the like since those times often feature the craftsman using planes. Using planes is almost a lost art now, but back before people were so reliant on mechanized joiners and the like, that’s what people used (planes) for their finishing work. In fact, even before the finishing work begins, handplanes have many applications and leave the wood very smooth. You hardly need sandpaper when you use a handplane (and you can use a finishing plane or scraper for the places that do need it). I guess sandpaper is so big now because it is cheap, and you don’t need expertise to use it, and it doesn’t need sharpening and maintaining. > > Stones were an early precursor to sandpaper. An ancient Egyptian depiction of a construction site (found in a tomb) showed craftsman using a stone to smooth wood. Other wooden artifacts from that culture have markings that show this was the usual method. They didn’t know/use planes. Of course. Then there are stone knives, which have been used to hone and polish wooden spears since… Oh, how I yearn for the good ol’ stone knives. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600/22 "2004-10-17T18:08:49Z")
Yeah, I guess a scraper is pretty much the ticket, can you imagine the labor that went in scraping non-planer items like claw and ball feet, acanthus(sp?) leaves, and egg and dart mouldings? I wonder what the beginnings of abrasives are. I can picture a craftsman throwing sand on a piece of wood and rubbing it with a flat something or other, but I just can’t see him accomplishing much with a wet (water) process. I wonder about oil based … Still, Is it just me or does anybody else find it sad that there is no “history of sandpaper” site on the web? I’ll bet the keyword way back when was BURNISHING. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600/23 "2004-10-17T18:25:44Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Of course. Then there are stone knives, which have been used to hone and polish wooden spears since… > Oh, how I yearn for the good ol’ stone knives. 😉 Heh. No, really, you don’t have to be some kind of crazy tool luddite to value planes. Many serious woodworkers, even those with a nice assortment of power tools in their shop, even those who use power tools for many other aspects of their work, reach for their planes or scrapers for finish work. They’re a pain in the ass to maintain, but well worth it. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600/24 "2004-10-17T18:55:11Z")
I know. A good friend of mine was a furniture maker. He made custom furniture and cabinets for rich people. He self-limited his waiting list to one year. Anyway, he lectured me on the beauties of some hand tools. I remember him using a scraper on a tabletop, and as he pulled it accross the surface it made a shaving that was almost translucent and almost the same width as the scraper. If a hole appeared in the shaving, that meant a “low spot” and he’d do the entire surface again. He did, though, use sandpaper for some stuff. He also used rottenstone. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600/25 "2004-10-18T00:05:22Z")
> [@](#): > > I wonder how much shark skin has been used to sand wood. The placoid scales are quite rough… ok just found a couple links for shagreen: > > making shark leather (don’t mind the urine bath part) > shagreen definition > > This resource has always been around… as long as you weren’t too far from the ocean. As I mentioned on this Board recently, Stephen Jay Gould gave a citation about the use of sharkskin for finisjing wood in one of his Natural History columns. The citation was in English, and, IIRC, from he 17th or 18th century. It came as quite a surprise to him that they’d used sharkskin for this purpose. I’d be willing to bet that sharkskin was used by the Greeks and/or Romans, but I’m not aware of any citations about it. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600/26 "2004-10-18T00:14:53Z")
> [@Weeks](#): > > Yeah, I guess a scraper is pretty much the ticket, can you imagine the labor that went in scraping non-planer items like claw and ball feet, acanthus(sp?) leaves, and egg and dart mouldings? > > I wonder what the beginnings of abrasives are. I can picture a craftsman throwing sand on a piece of wood and rubbing it with a flat something or other, but I just can’t see him accomplishing much with a wet (water) process. I wonder about oil based … > > Still, Is it just me or does anybody else find it sad that there is no “history of sandpaper” site on the web? > > I’ll bet the keyword way back when was BURNISHING. I think burnishing smoothes without removing material. Here’s [rottenstone](http://www.cheyennesales.com/catalog/behpumice.htm), and a couple other polishes for your perusal. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600/27 "2004-12-16T00:50:34Z")
After sanding, scraping, burnishing, etc. the pores of the wood have to be sealed with several thin coats of varnish or other sealer. Each one polished with rottenstone to produce the final mirror like finish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-sandpaper/269600.md?page=1)