Sanding Sticks

Supplies:
Wood pieces, like dowels, rulers, or wood scraps
Sandpaper in assorted grits
Tape, glue, and/or rubber bands

Even if you’re a person who loves to craft or build things it doesn’t mean that you enjoy every aspect of it. Maybe you hate carting the wood from store to home. Maybe you don’t like painting it. For me, it’s the sanding. I can’t stand the sound of it – it’s like fingers raking down a chalkboard. But the sanding is often a necessity if you’re working with wood. So, I put in my earphones and get the job done. There are other things about sanding that can be less than fun, such as having to sand massive amounts of paint off of something, or trying to sand places where your hand won’t fit. I can help with the latter. Make assorted sanding sticks and there’s no wood job that you can’t tackle.

There are certain places on wooden furniture, or on items built from craft store wooden shapes, that can be difficult to reach without having to flip the piece, stand on your head, bump your elbow, or bang your knuckles. Those are the areas where sanding sticks can be very helpful. Some places include inward corners and around knobs. However, a sanding stick is also useful when it comes to filing down cutouts in the wood, grooves, holes, and carvings.

A sanding stick is merely a stick with sandpaper attached to it but there are many different types. Take a ruler or other flat piece of wood, wrap sandpaper around it, and use it to file edges, corners, and other large areas. Cut a piece of sandpaper to be nearly the length of the ruler, and wide enough to wrap all the way around it, and then glue it in place. A second choice is to use double-sided tape to secure the sandpaper.There’s even a product out that lets you paint the sandpaper onto the stick.

With a dowel rod, you can make a different type of sanding stick. Cut a circle of sandpaper out, center it on the dowel rod, and bring the sandpaper down around the rod. A rubber band works great to hold the sandpaper in place. This sanding stick is perfect for inward corners, between knobs and wood, and along bevels.

Make various sanding sticks by using things like paint stirring sticks, assorted diameters of dowels, popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, skewers with tips cut off, or thick cardboard. Attach sandpaper by taping, gluing, or painting and then get to work on that wood!