Is it best to use sandpaper or steel wool between coats of nitro?

On my grizzly kit is says to use sandpaper, but I have 0000 steel
wool, and I was wondering if that would be better between coats of nitro

You can block sand with sandpaper.

Hard to do that with steel wool.

Steel wool leaves behind little pieces of steel...which can be hard to clean up.

I think you may be happier with sandpaper.

But since you already have steel wool...hey, give it a try.

Clean really well before you recoat.

Good luck

We will expect a followup report. :wink:

Why would you want to sand between coats? That's not necessary. Put on your color coats, & then your clear coats. Only sand when you do the final sand & polish, unless you have a run, or a large dog gets stuck to the finish. Just make sure you put on enough clear coats because you'll sand a lot of it away during finishing.

I think you may be happier with sandpaper.

But since you already have steel wool...hey, give it a try.

Actually I have both, I got the sandpaper that the kit says to use, but I also got the steel because I was going to go tru-oil before I got a sprayer. I'll just do the sandpaper I guess, feel like an idiot for getting the wool though, maybe I'll use it on the neck finish though.

Oh, and maddog, I was referring to the end sanding, they have like a 2-3 step process.

Joefaity, sorry for my advice. I've never used the "Grizzly" process. I've done several guitars & have used the "Reranch process", & have always used sandpaper through 2000 grit. I've never used steel wool. Take it for what it's worth, I was only trying to help.

The OTHER problem with steel wool is that it usually contains oil, which will contaminate your surface if you are doing intercoat wet-sanding, which BTW is ONLY necessary if you have "orange peel" or other defects that manifest themselves through multiple lacquer coats. Personally, I wouldn't use anything except for wet-dry sandpaper, period.

No way I'd use steel wool to get a purty shiney buff out......though choose the aging option and make me mess up a purty body,its gonna cost ya $100......then I reach for some steely stuff.


Wet sand and start @ 600-800 grit on through 1500-2000.........then on to some re-newz it/Scratch X and then your choice of wax.

Joefaity, sorry for my advice. I've never used the "Grizzly" process. I've done several guitars & have used the "Reranch process", & have always used sandpaper through 2000 grit. I've never used steel wool. Take it for what it's worth, I was only trying to help.

Sorry, I didn't mean that to sound like a hack, I appreciate everybody's advice this being my first time. That's the one problem with the Internet, you can't see a person's face, so it's easy to sound like a hack. :)

thanks everybody for the warning on the wool, I shall stay away! Tomorrow I finally get to start spraying, so it's sealer time!

New problem! I was just masking off the walnut fretboard so I could spray the sealer in the morning, but when I pulled a bit off the tape had brown streaks left in it. I assume that that is wood being pulled off of it, so I'm freaked. The wood feels slightly different where the tape was, so I don't want to go anyfurther for fear that when it sits while I spray it and then it cures for a week it will become stickier and be worse. Any advice? I'm using scotch blue painters tape btw. Should I go through with it, or what else can I do?

Well, you're still new here but have posted enough to know no one will take you seriously without PICTURES!

I think you may want to try that light stick tape. I think it's called drafting tape. You might just want to rub out where this tape was and see but others probably know better than I do.

If you sanded the neck before masking it off, it is probably just residual sanding dust that is coming off on the tape. That walnut is pretty porous and has lots of places for the sanding dust to hide.