Replies

1. 
   WillGeorge | Apr 16, 2009 11:53am | #1

   I would bet it was Shark Skin or volcanic rock or sandstone! I'd also thing they had paper before steel mills and somebody found a way to make 'wool' out of a slab of steel.

   Who knows?

1. 
   BG | Apr 16, 2009 12:42pm | #2

   Will,I'm pretty sure 'Steel Wool' comes from hydraulic rams, which didn't evolve until the farmers got into animal husbandry. Sandpaper, on the other hand, was discovered the first time someone sat on beach in a wet bathing suit. The 'grits' in sandpaper indicate how long you can sit on the sand before it hurts.

1. 
   dgreen | Apr 16, 2009 12:51pm | #3

   That should have come with a warning!

   Part of my evening cocktail did not make it to it's intended destination.

   I'll probably go to sleep counting hydraulic sheep. 

    

   ................................................

   Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot

2. 
   integrity_woodworks | Apr 16, 2009 07:13pm | #11

   BG I spit coffee across the room.that  was a great way to start the day THANK YOU very much!! 

   Dan

2. 
   oldusty | Apr 16, 2009 04:52pm | #4

     I don't know the name of the tree but in South America and perhaps elsewhere there is a tree they use the leaves for sandpaper , the tree was here before steel wool .

                dusty

1. 
   saschafer | Apr 16, 2009 04:54pm | #6

   I believe shark skin was also used as sandpaper, and I'm pretty sure that sharks were around before 3M and Norton, and even Mirka.

   -Steve

    

1. 
   oldusty | Apr 16, 2009 05:03pm | #7

     Some of those big old White sharks indeed have been around a long time .

       Steve is that the same you ? You have been gone a while and missed as well .

         regards        dusty

1. 
   saschafer | Apr 16, 2009 06:16pm | #8

   Yes, it's the same ol' me. I got busy, and then I got busier. But things have settled down now, and so I'm back.

   Thanks for noticing that I was gone. ;-)

   -Steve

    

2. 
   integrity_woodworks | Apr 16, 2009 07:09pm | #10

   dusty,   thanx I will have to find out what this tree is called,  right now I am still laughing at the hydraulic rams.

3. 
   dkellernc | Apr 16, 2009 04:53pm | #5

   There is no argument over this question.  "Steel", at least inexpensive steel that could be used to make wool, is a modern invention (late 1870's - Bessemer process).  Iron is generally not a suitable material for "wool", and it's difficult to imagine a process in the 18th century that could make "iron wool" anyway.

   Sandpaper was first described in the mid 18th century.  Generally, one made his own by sprinkling hide-glue coated paper or leather with sharp sand (mined sand, not beach sand) or crushed glass.  Commercial sandpaper was avaialble in the early 19th century, long before the invention of the Bessemer process and inexpensive steel.

1. 
   integrity_woodworks | Apr 16, 2009 07:04pm | #9

   dkellernc    .great info Thanx, did you have that stored in your head,or did you have to look that up. I agree that it seems there would no argument over this question,but then again someone might know something we do not? 

    Mostly I thought this would get the wise crackers going, and so far -pretty funnny.

   thanx fella's Dan

1. 
   dkellernc | Apr 17, 2009 05:22pm | #12

   The sandpaper info is from historic sources.  The steel wool comments are a conjecture based on what I know about the history of steel making.

   The funny thing about steel is that it was rare, precious, incredibly laborious to make, and incredibly expensive in the 18th and first half of the 19th century, to the point where most WW blades were forge-welded pieces of small steel attached to a much larger piece of wrought iron.

   In modern times, wrought iron is rare, precious, incredibly laborious to make, and incredibly expensive.  Steel's cheap as dirt.

1. 
   integrity_woodworks | Apr 18, 2009 06:41am | #13

   dkellernc, thanx for responding,interesting info. I knew I may learn something out of this ,I no there is no arguement there but it was funny to see them tell the wives they where late and smell of brown ale almost every friday, because they where arguing out the plus's &minus's of steel wool vs. sand paper. One of these fine gentlemen would always start in that the wool was far better because it did not clog up the pores of the wood & that it had so many other uses(which it does). The other would go on about how much older &tried and true sand paper is & that it came in a much wider assortment of grits.

   They where both amazingly gifted craftsmen and they took me in, gave me a place to live when I was only 14 .I could live above the shop as long as I worked in the shop. which ended up being an apprenticeship/and alife long passion! 41 now and still learning every day.

   I worked for, and then with these two for some time and the things I remember most ,are this(excuse) to have a beer together.and they always said ...there is no such thing as a stupid question!

   So thank you for anwsering ,      all of you who have.

   Dan

4. 
   JMartinsky | Apr 18, 2009 11:52pm | #14

   I'm guessing that steel sheep were around before the paper mills, but shark skin and sand stone would be the oldest of all.

   John