Re: Raw materials required for making glass paper and also for making sand paper

Materials used for the abrading particles are: flint — no longer commonly used; garnet — commonly used in woodworking; emery — commonly used to abrade or polish metal; aluminium oxide — perhaps most common in widest variety of grits; silicon carbide — available in very coarse grits all the way through to microgrits, common in wet applications; alumina-zirconia — (an aluminium oxide - zirconium oxide alloy), used for machine grinding applications chromium oxide — used in extremely fine micron grit (micrometre level) papers ceramic aluminum oxide — used in high pressure applications, commonly known as CubitronTM a 3M Corp. Trademark who invented sol gel ceramic grains. Used in both coated abrasives, as well as in bonded abrasives. As well, sandpaper may be "stearated" where a dry lubricant is loaded to the abrasive. Stearated papers are useful in sanding coats of finish and paint as the stearate "soap" prevents clogging and increases the useful life of the sandpaper. --------------------------------------------------------------- A strong paper faced with powdered glass on one side and used in abrading or smoothing surfaces such as wood or leather, or to remove surface marks from paper. It is sometimes called sandpaper, although sandpaper is actually faced with sand or natural flint and not glass.