One simple chart, plus the plain-English reasoning behind it, so you know exactly which sandpaper to reach for on wood, paint, metal, drywall or a finish between coats.
Here is the short version, right up front: low numbers are rough, high numbers are smooth. 60 grit takes material off fast. 320 grit barely touches the surface. Everything else in this guide is detail on top of that one idea.
The problem is that “which grit?” is never really one question. It is three: where do I start, what do I go through, and where do I stop? Get any of those wrong and you either waste an afternoon or ruin a finish — usually without knowing why until the stain goes on and the scratches suddenly appear.
This page is built to be the only grit reference you need. Bookmark it, because you will come back to the chart. ✅
Alt text: “Sandpaper sheets arranged from 60 grit to 400 grit showing the range from coarse to fine”
- What grit numbers actually mean
- The master sandpaper grit chart
- Every grit range, explained simply
- Which grit for which material
- The grit sequence rule (the big one)
- Types of sandpaper and when they matter
- Grit by project, start to finish
- Common mistakes (and how to fix them)
- Pro tips worth knowing
- The assortment pack I recommend
- Frequently asked questions
- Your final checklist
What Grit Numbers Actually Mean
The grit number tells you how many abrasive particles fit across a given space during manufacturing. Think of it as sifting sand through a screen. A screen with 60 holes per inch lets big chunks through. A screen with 400 tiny holes only lets very fine powder through.
So a 60 grit sheet is covered in relatively large, sharp grains. Each one digs a deep scratch. Lots of material comes off quickly, and the surface is left rough.
A 400 grit sheet is covered in tiny grains. Each digs a scratch so shallow your eye reads it as “smooth”. Very little material comes off.
Sanding is not really about making wood smooth. It is about replacing big scratches with smaller scratches, over and over, until the scratches are too small to see.
That reframing explains almost everything else. It explains why you cannot jump from 80 to 220 — the fine paper physically cannot reach the bottom of the deep scratches the coarse paper made. It explains why a surface can feel smooth but still look terrible under stain. And it explains why the order matters more than the individual grits do.
One more useful fact: grit numbering follows standards, and the two common ones differ slightly. CAMI is the American system, and FEPA is the European one, written with a “P” in front — P80, P120, P220. They are close but not identical, and the gap widens at the fine end. P220 is a little finer than CAMI 220. For everyday DIY it rarely matters. For fine finishing, stick to one system so your sequence stays consistent.
The Master Sandpaper Grit Chart
This is the one to bookmark. It covers every grit you are realistically going to buy, what it is called, and what it is genuinely for.
| Grit | Category | What it does | Best used for | Avoid on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40–50 | Extra coarse | Removes material very aggressively | Stripping floors, shaping rough timber, removing heavy rust | Anything you care about |
| 60–80 | Coarse | Fast removal with deep scratches | Old paint and varnish, levelling uneven boards, rounding sharp edges | Veneer, softwood you plan to stain |
| 100–120 | Medium | Removes coarse scratches, evens surfaces | After stripping, levelling filler, general prep | Final passes before finishing |
| 150–180 | Fine | Smooths without deep marks | Bare wood before paint, prep before stain on softwood | Removing paint — it clogs |
| 220 | Very fine | Final smoothing of bare wood | Last pass on hardwood before stain or varnish | Softwood you plan to stain (closes the grain) |
| 320–400 | Extra fine | Polishes rather than removes | Between coats of finish, dulling gloss before recoat | Bare wood prep — it does almost nothing |
| 600–800 | Superfine | Very light polishing, usually wet | Automotive primer, smoothing clear coat | Wood in almost all cases |
| 1000+ | Ultra fine | Polishing to a shine | Car paint correction, plastics, metal finishing | General woodwork |
Every Grit Range, Explained Simply
Extra coarse (40–50) — the demolition grits
These are not really finishing abrasives. They are for removing a lot of material in a hurry: taking the old finish off a hardwood floor, flattening a badly cupped board, or grinding back rust. They leave scratches so deep that you will need at least two more grits to erase them. Most home projects never need them, and reaching for them on furniture is usually a mistake you spend the next hour undoing.
Coarse (60–80) — the workhorses for stripping
This is where most paint-removal jobs start. 80 grit is the sweet spot for old paint and varnish: aggressive enough to cut through, not so brutal that it gouges. If you are refinishing a painted dresser or skirting board, start here. Be careful on veneer — it can be under a millimetre thick, and 80 grit goes through it faster than you would believe.
Medium (100–120) — the clean-up crew
After coarse grit has done the heavy lifting, 120 removes its scratches and evens everything out. It is also the right grit for levelling wood filler flush with the surrounding surface without digging into the wood around the patch. If you are unsure where to start on bare, reasonably flat wood, 120 is a safe default.
Fine (150–180) — the preparation grits
This is where a surface starts genuinely looking ready. 180 is the standard final grit before painting, and the standard stopping point on softwood before staining. It is also the grit for scuffing existing paint so a new coat grips — the step people skip right before their paint peels.
Very fine (220) — the finishing line for bare wood
On hardwoods like oak, maple or walnut, 220 is where you stop before applying stain or oil. The surface feels genuinely smooth and the grain will still accept colour evenly. Going finer than this on bare wood is usually counterproductive, because burnishing the surface stops finish soaking in.
Extra fine (320–400) — between coats only
These grits are not for preparing raw wood. They are for after your first coat of finish has dried. The first coat of water-based varnish makes the wood grain stand up, leaving a slightly fuzzy feel. A gentle pass with 320 knocks that down, and the next coat goes on glassy. Very light pressure — you are dulling the shine, not removing the coat.
Superfine and above (600+) — mostly automotive
Once you pass 400, you are polishing rather than sanding. This is the territory of car bodywork, where 600–800 smooths primer and 1500–3000 refines clear coat before machine polishing. It is almost always used wet. For wood projects you can safely ignore this whole range.
Which Grit for Which Material
The right grit depends as much on what you are sanding as on what you are trying to achieve. This table gives you a tested starting point and stopping point for the common materials.
| Material | Start at | Finish at | Key warning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bare softwood (pine, fir) | 100–120 | 180 | ⚠️ Do not go past 180 if staining — it closes the grain and causes blotching |
| Bare hardwood (oak, maple) | 100–120 | 220 | Dense grain takes a finer finish well |
| Old paint (sound) | 180 | 180 | You are keying it, not removing it |
| Old paint (flaking) | 80 | 180 | ⚠️ Test for lead if pre-1978 |
| Varnish or lacquer | 100 | 180 | Gums up fast — change paper often |
| Veneer | 150 | 220 | ⚠️ Extremely thin — never go coarser than 150 |
| MDF | 150 | 220 | Edges soak up paint; seal them |
| Drywall / plaster | 120 | 220 | Very light pressure or you scuff the paper facing |
| Wood filler | 120 | 180 | Feather the edges into surrounding wood |
| Bare metal / rust | 60–80 | 220 | Use aluminium oxide or silicon carbide |
| Car body filler | 80 | 320 | Then 600+ wet on primer |
| Plastic | 220 | 400 | ⚠️ Low speed — it melts and smears easily |
| Between finish coats | 320 | 400 | Barely any pressure — dull the shine only |
The Grit Sequence Rule (The Big One)
If you take one thing from this page, take this: never skip more than one grit step.
Here is why, in practical terms. Suppose you strip a table with 80 grit. That leaves scratches roughly 80-grit deep across the whole surface. Now you jump straight to 220. The 220 particles are tiny — they skim across the tops of the ridges and polish them, but they cannot reach down into the valleys. The surface feels smooth to your hand. Then you apply stain, the pigment settles into those deep scratches, and every single one shows up as a dark line.
The fix is to climb the ladder properly. A safe standard sequence:
- 80 — remove the old finish or level the surface
- 120 — erase the 80-grit scratches
- 180 — erase the 120-grit scratches, ready for paint
- 220 — final refinement for stain or clear finish on hardwood
You can go 80 → 120 → 180 → 220, or 80 → 150 → 220. Both work because no single jump is too large. What fails is 80 → 220.
How do you know when a grit is finished? Use the pencil trick. Scribble light pencil lines across the surface before you start a grit. Sand until every mark is gone. That guarantees you covered the whole area evenly, with no missed patches — and it removes the guesswork entirely.
Types of Sandpaper and When They Matter
Grit is the number. The abrasive material and the backing are separate choices, and they matter more than most people realise.
| Type | Colour (typical) | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminium oxide | Brown / tan | Wood, paint, general use | The default. Durable and good value. |
| Silicon carbide | Dark grey / black | Metal, plastic, wet sanding, between coats | Sharper but wears faster on wood |
| Ceramic | Red / blue | Hardwood, heavy removal | Expensive, lasts a long time |
| Garnet | Orange / amber | Fine hand sanding on bare wood | Traditional, gentle, wears quickly |
| Zirconia | Blue / green | Aggressive stock removal, belt sanders | Very tough, not for fine work |
Wet or dry? Silicon carbide paper with a waterproof backing can be used wet. Water carries the dust away, stops clogging, and gives a far finer result. This is standard on car paint and useful between coats of finish. Never wet-sand bare wood — you will raise the grain and swell the timber.
Sheets, discs or hook-and-loop? Plain sheets are cheapest and you cut them to size. Hook-and-loop (Velcro-backed) discs and triangles cost more but change in two seconds, which genuinely matters — people who find grit changes annoying tend to skip grits, and skipping grits ruins finishes.
Grit by Project, Start to Finish
Here are complete grit sequences for the jobs people most often ask about.
Repainting kitchen cabinets
Degrease first — kitchen doors carry a film of cooking oil that sanding will just grind into the grain. Then scuff the existing paint with 180 grit until the shine is uniformly dull. You are not removing paint, only giving the new coat something to grip. If there are chips or flaking areas, spot-sand those at 120, feather the edges, then bring the whole door back to 180. Prime, then a very light 220 pass before the topcoat.
Refinishing a pine dresser for stain
Start at 100 to cut the old varnish, then 150, then stop at 180. Wipe with a damp cloth to raise the grain, let it dry, then a light 180 pass again. Do not be tempted to go finer — pine blotches badly when burnished. A pre-stain wood conditioner helps enormously here too.
Sanding a hardwood tabletop for oil or varnish
120 → 180 → 220. Vacuum between every grit. Finish with the grain. Check with a light held low across the surface before you apply anything, because raking light shows scratches that overhead light hides completely.
Preparing drywall for paint
Use 120 on the joint compound, then 220 for the final smooth. Extremely light pressure — press too hard and you scuff through the paper facing of the board, which then shows as a fuzzy patch through the paint. Our guide to sanding drywall without the dust covers this in detail.
Removing rust from metal
80 to break through the rust, 120 to even it out, 220 to prepare for primer. Use silicon carbide or aluminium oxide. Prime quickly — bare steel starts oxidising again within hours in humid conditions.
Between coats of polyurethane
320, by hand, with almost no pressure. You want the surface dulled and any dust nibs knocked off, nothing more. Wipe with a tack cloth, then recoat. Two thin coats sanded between beat three thick ones every time.
Car body filler and primer
80 to shape the filler, 180 to refine, 320 before primer, then 600–800 wet on the primer itself. This is one of the few jobs where the very fine grits genuinely earn their place. See our guide to DA sanders for auto bodywork.
Common Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
Mistake 1 — Starting too fine
What happens: you sand for twenty minutes and the surface looks unchanged, while your paper clogs solid.
The fix: drop two steps. If 180 is not cutting, go to 120. If 120 is not cutting, go to 80. Coarse paper that works beats fine paper that does not.
Mistake 2 — Skipping grits
What happens: the wood feels smooth but scratches appear the instant stain touches it.
The fix: go back to your coarsest grit and climb properly, no jump bigger than one step.
Mistake 3 — Sanding softwood too fine before stain
What happens: blotchy, patchy colour that will not even out.
The fix: stop at 180 on pine and fir. Use a pre-stain conditioner for even better results.
Mistake 4 — Not vacuuming between grits
What happens: a stray 80-grit particle drags across your 220 pass and leaves one long, infuriating scratch.
The fix: vacuum the surface — and the paper — at every grit change.
Mistake 5 — Using worn paper and pressing harder
What happens: heat, burn marks, and a surface that gets worse the longer you work on it.
The fix: change the paper. It is the cheapest thing in the whole project.
Mistake 6 — Sanding across the grain on the final pass
What happens: cross-grain scratches that are invisible on bare wood and glaringly obvious under finish.
The fix: always make your last passes with the grain, however tempting the shortcut.
Mistake 7 — Going coarse on veneer
What happens: you sand straight through to the chipboard underneath. This one cannot be undone.
The fix: never start coarser than 150 on veneer, and check often.
Pro Tips Worth Knowing
Buy assortments, not single grits
People skip grits mainly because they have run out of the middle one. A multi-grit pack removes that excuse and costs less per sheet.
Write the grit on the back
Once a sheet is cut down and used, telling 120 from 180 by eye is genuinely hard. A marker pen on the back takes two seconds and saves confusion later.
Clean your paper with a vacuum
Holding a running vacuum nozzle against the abrasive clears clogged pores and restores cutting. This can nearly double the working life of a sheet.
Use a sanding block for anything flat
Sanding by hand without a block means your fingertips press unevenly, creating dips and waves you will not see until the finish goes on. Cork, rubber, or even a scrap of flat timber works.
Let raking light be the judge
Place a lamp low, so the light skims across the surface. Every flaw casts a shadow. This is the single fastest way to check your work, and it costs nothing.
The Assortment Pack I Recommend
For most home projects, a mixed-grit pack of full-size sheets is the most flexible thing you can own. You cut it to fit whatever tool or block you are using, and you always have the next grit in the sequence to hand.
BOSHCRAFT 25-Piece Sandpaper Assortment, 9″ x 11″
Best All-Round Value★★★★☆ 4.6 out of 5 on Amazon
This pack covers the exact sequence this guide recommends — 80, 120, 150, 220 and 320 — with five sheets of each. That means you can run a complete job from stripping through to between-coat sanding without a mid-project trip to the shop, which is precisely when people start skipping grits.
The sheets are standard 9 by 11 inch, so they cut down neatly to fit a quarter-sheet palm sander, a sanding block, or a detail sander pad. Aluminium oxide abrasive makes them a sensible default for wood, paint and light metal work.
Why it works:
- ✅ Covers a full grit ladder — no gaps, so you never have to skip a step
- ✅ Full-size sheets cut down to fit any sander, block or hand-sanding job
- ✅ Aluminium oxide is the right general-purpose abrasive for wood and paint
- ✅ Five of each grit is realistic for a full furniture or cabinet project
- ⚠️ No hook-and-loop backing — these are plain sheets, so you cut and clamp them rather than sticking them on
Best for: furniture refinishing, cabinet repainting, general home DIY, anyone using a block or a clamp-style palm sander.
Not for: hook-and-loop random orbital discs or pre-cut detail sander triangles — buy those in the matching shape instead.
🛒 Check Price on AmazonPrice and availability change often — the button shows the live Amazon price.
Frequently Asked Questions
What grit sandpaper should I use before painting?
For bare wood, finish at 180 grit. That is smooth enough for paint to lay flat but still has enough texture for good adhesion. For existing paint that is in sound condition, simply scuff it with 180 until the shine is gone — you do not need to strip it. Going finer than 220 before painting is counterproductive, because very smooth surfaces actually give paint less to grip.
Can I skip grits to save time?
You can skip one step safely — 80 to 150, or 120 to 220. You cannot skip two. The finer paper physically cannot reach the bottom of the deeper scratches, so it polishes the high points and leaves the valleys. The surface feels smooth but the scratches are still there, and they become obvious the moment stain or a clear finish goes on. Skipping grits does not save time overall, because you usually end up sanding the whole thing twice.
What is the difference between P120 and 120 grit?
They are two different standards. P120 is the European FEPA scale; plain 120 is the American CAMI scale. At coarse grits they are nearly identical. At fine grits they diverge — P220 is noticeably finer than CAMI 220, and the gap grows from there. For general DIY the difference is not important. If you are doing fine finishing work, just stay within one system so your sequence steps stay even.
Why does my stain look blotchy after sanding?
Two common causes. First, you sanded too fine — on softwoods like pine, going past 180 burnishes the surface closed so stain cannot penetrate evenly. Second, you skipped grits, leaving deep scratches that soak up extra pigment and show as dark streaks. The fix for both is to sand back to 120, work up properly to 180, and use a pre-stain wood conditioner on softwood.
How do I know when to change sandpaper?
When it stops cutting. The clearest signal is that you find yourself pressing harder to get the same result — that is the moment to change it, not five minutes later. Visually, look for a glazed, shiny appearance or clogged patches loaded with dust and old finish. Trying to save a worn sheet costs you far more in time and burn marks than a new sheet costs in money.
Is wet sanding better than dry sanding?
For some jobs, yes. Water carries away dust that would otherwise clog the abrasive, so wet sanding gives a finer, more consistent result and creates no airborne dust. It is standard for car paint, primer and sometimes between coats of finish. But you need waterproof silicon carbide paper, and you must never wet-sand bare wood — the water swells the fibres and raises the grain badly.
Your Final Checklist
- Identified the material — softwood, hardwood, veneer, paint or metal
- Chosen a starting grit coarse enough to actually cut
- Planned the full sequence with no jump bigger than one step
- Checked for lead paint if the building predates 1978
- Using a block or sander for flat areas, not bare fingertips
- Scribbled pencil marks to confirm even coverage per grit
- Vacuuming the surface and the paper between every grit
- Stopping at 180 on softwood destined for stain
- Stopping at 220 on hardwood before a clear finish
- Saving 320 and finer for between coats only
- Making the final passes with the grain
- Checking the surface under raking light before finishing
- Damp-wiping and re-sanding lightly if using a water-based finish
- Changing paper as soon as it stops cutting
- Wearing an N95 mask with dust extraction running
Related reading: how to use a detail sander, sanding wood before painting, and sandpaper for glass.