For first-time garnet user Jeff Boggs, GMA Garnet™ is beyond amazing. It is incredible! The owner of Metal Revival in Columbia, Tennessee in USA has been using crushed glass for his wood and metal restoration projects for four years.
However, there are limitations to using glass abrasives on wood applications. Jeff found that the coarser glass may damage the softer parts of the surface while the finer glass was a nightmare to control, and it generates too much dust.
Jeff began exploring other blast cleaning options such as GMA Garnet™ abrasives and the IBIX-Pro9 portable blasting system.
He put this new option to the test when Len Reinhardt, a well-known furniture restoration expert requested Jeff to remove the lacquer finish from the top of a 19th century English mahogany pie crust table. Here is what Jeff discovered:
When the GMA SoftBlast™ garnet arrived, I expected it to be inconsistent in size and prone to clumping – which wasn’t the case. After practising on a few wood pieces to get a feel of how it works, I began removing the lacquer finish from the table top at a low pressure of 15psi without garnet. I started to increase the abrasive metering valve slowly, and the gloss began to disappear from the section I was blasting. I couldn’t believe the control I had, and I wasn’t even down to the bare wood! Back to home