How to make your own Sanding Sticks for Jewellery
What are Sanding Sticks or Emery Sticks?
Sanding Sticks are wooden sticks of different shapes with emery paper or sandpaper on the top and are used as part of the polishing process in jewellery making to remove file marks or hammer marks from metals in almost every handmade project.
How to use Sanding/Emery paper
Sandpaper and emery paper come in different grits ranging from very coarse to very fine. To use them start with the coarsest grit (usually 120/180/240) and work consecutively through each number you have until you reach the finest grit (usually from 600-1200). When using sticks, hold the piece you want to sand in one hand and move the sanding stick back and forth over the metal with a small amount of pressure. As you sand you will remove a small amount of metal from the surface with each pass, which in turn will remove imperfections, dents and scratches.
Sandpaper v. Emery Paper - What’s the difference?
The main difference between sandpaper and emery paper is the abrasive component. Sandpaper is usually made of materials such as aluminium oxide and silicon carbide while emery paper is made from the mineral emery. In Jewellery making ‘sandpaper’ and ‘emery paper’ are often interchanged and used to mean the same thing, but rest assured, both work excellently for sanding and finishing your jewellery pieces!
How to make your own Sanding Sticks
While sanding sticks are readily available to buy from your jewellery suppliers, they are also really easy and economical to make yourself with just a few household items and a quick trip to the hardware store.
The Shopping List
Wooden dowels: A variety of shapes and sizes to suit a range of different jewellery projects. I recommend rectangular, half round, full round, and quarter round. If you are buying these from a hardware store they usually come in long lengths that can be cut down to make 3 or 4 sticks of different grits.
Sandpaper/Emery Paper: A variety of grits from 120 - 1200
A cutting mat, a craft knife, double sided tape and a pen.
The Steps
Step 1: Cut the dowels to size with a wood saw. Around 25-30cms is usually about right.
Step 2: Sand the dowels to avoid splinters
Step 3: mark the width of your emery paper on your first dowel with your pen.
Step 4: place the dowel along a length of double-sided tape lining up the edge of the tape with the long edge of the wood.
Step 5: Use your scalpel and a ruler to cut off the excess tape
Step 6: Roll the wood over the tape to stick it all the way round. If you don't have quite enough tape, remove the protective covering off the first piece and then repeat the process until your dowel has a layer of tape covering all sides, saving any offcuts of tape for your next emery stick.
Step 7: Place one edge of your dowel along the edge of your emery paper and roll it over until all sides are covered.
Step 8: Remove any excess paper with the scalpel.
Step 9: Write the grit of the paper on the wooden handles so you don't forget which one is which!
And voilà, a brand new sanding/emery stick to use on your future jewellery projects!
