An abrasive is a type of material, it can often be a mineral. Abrasives are used to finish or shape a workpiece, rubbing the abrasive on the workpiece leads to part of the workpiece being worn away. When finishing a material it is often thought of as a means to polish the material to gain a smooth surface or even reflective surface, however some finishes require roughening as in beaded, matte or satin finishes.



The difference in hardness between the Abrasive and the surface they are worked on is what allows the Abrasive to work, the Abrasive being the harder of the 2 substances. However any 2 solid materials that tend to rub against each other will eventually wear each other away. An example of this is the sole of a shoe, after decades it will eventually wear away wooden or stone steps that are repeatedly walked upon.

You will find abrasives come in many sizes and these are because they have diverse reason. Natural Abrasives are often in the form of a rectangular block and often solid as dressed stone.

The main type of is Sandpaper, a Coated Abrasive is an Abrasive fixed on to a form of backing material like paper, metal, rubber, resin, cloth and polyester. Coated abrasives tend to use the same minerals as Bonded Abrasives.

A bonding agent like a resin or an adhesive is applied to the flat surface (paper for example) in which the mineral is applied, this forms the grit like surface of sandpaper. Coated abrasives are often shaped for a specific purpose like to wrap around hand pads or sanding blocks, they can also be shaped for use in orbital or rotary sanders.

The striking surface of a matchbox is a good example of how an abrasive can be used, Belt grinders are also another form of abrasive. The most common abrasive used here is Aluminium Oxide,

Bonded Abrasives are an Abrasive material contained within a matrix. A sharpening stone is a Bonded Abrasive; these tend to be in the form of a block with both sides having different densities of grit.

Another type of Bonded Abrasive is a Grinding Wheel, this is a cylinder that is rotated at a very high speed the cylinder has an Abrasive surface in with the material to be finished is pressed against whle it spins. If you have any queations about , please contact us here.