MicroMesh Swab Reference

(This page revised June 22, 2012)

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MicroMesh swabs are remarkably useful for shaping and polishing concave rounded surfaces. Among other tasks, I use them frequently to smooth the insides of piston-filler barrels that have been roughened by friction from a deteriorating piston seal.

But it’s too easy to lose the card that comes packaged with the swab set, and you can’t tell the players without a score card — so this page lists the 12 swab colors in order from coarsest (Sea Green) to finest (Gray) along with their corresponding grit references in other standard systems. In the U.S.A., for example, ordinary sandpaper is graded by ANSI/CAM grit size, so the Bronze MicroMesh swab is equivalent to 400-grit sandpaper.

Colors in this table have been matched to real swabs on a calibrated monitor; if your monitor is off calibration, colors may be a little different for you.

Color	MicroMesh	ANSI/CAMI	FEPA/EURO	APEX	Micron
Sea Green	100 MX	—	P280	—
Country Blue	120 MX	—	P320	A-65	52µ
Dusty Mauve	150 MX	280	P360	—	45µ
Bronze	1500	400	—	A-30	30µ
Green	1800	600	—	—	15µ
Black	2400	—	—	—	—
Dark Purple	3200	1200	—	—	—
Brown	3600	1350	—	—	8µ
Teal	4000	1500	—	A-05	5µ
Light Purple	6000	—	—	—	4µ
Royal Blue	8000	—	—	—	3µ
Gray	12000	—	—	—	—

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