Sandpaper

Sandpaper is an abrasive paper used to smooth and finish wood surfaces, and it’s a handy tool in wood carving. After you’ve done the cutting and carving, you’ll often have small tool marks or a rough texture on your piece – this is where sandpaper comes in. By rubbing the sandpaper on the wood, you sand the surface, gradually wearing away high spots and scratches until the wood feels smooth to the touch. Sandpaper comes in various grit sizes (the grit number indicates the coarseness: lower numbers are coarse and remove material quickly, while higher numbers are fine and polish the surface). For example, 80-grit sandpaper is fairly rough and good for initial smoothing, whereas 220-grit or 320-grit is quite fine and used for final finishing.

For beginners in wood carving, sandpaper is an essential part of the toolkit because it helps clean up mistakes and refine details. When you’re just starting out, knife or chisel cuts might not be perfectly even – you might have fuzziness in the wood or small ridges. Using sandpaper can remove those minor imperfections and soften edges where needed. Many newcomers ask about the “best sandpaper for carving.” In practice, there isn’t a single best grit; rather, you’ll use a sequence of grits to get a smooth finish. For instance, you might begin with a coarse 80 or 100 grit to knock down rough spots, then use 150–180 grit to further smooth the surface, and finally finish with a fine grit like 220 or 320 for polishing. Sanding is typically done by hand on carvings (especially if they are small or detailed), and you should sand with the grain of the wood when possible to avoid creating new scratches. One thing to note: while sandpaper greatly improves smoothness, over-sanding can blur fine details, so it’s a balance – you want to smooth the piece but not erase the character of your knife work.

At BeaverCraft, we include sandpaper in many of our carving kits and emphasize the importance of finishing steps. For example, our beginner kits often provide several strips of sandpaper in different grits, ensuring that newcomers have everything needed not just to carve, but also to finish the project nicely. Our philosophy is holistic – carving isn’t done when you put the knife down; it’s done when the piece is smooth and ready for display or use. By supplying sandpaper (and teaching when to use it), we help beginners learn good habits for finishing their carvings. With the sandpaper from a BeaverCraft kit, you can gently sand your work (like a comfort bird or a small figurine) to remove knife marks and prepare the surface for applying a finish or paint. The supportive tone of our guides helps you understand that sanding is not “cheating,” but rather an important step in carving craftsmanship. With the right grit (or combination of grits), even a first-time carver can take pride in a smooth, splinter-free final product.