Final Sanding Chart: General Finishes Dye Stain and Rubio Oil Plus 2C

The last sanding grade depends on the named finish, the wood and the operation. General Finishes Water-Based Dye Stain gives different raw-wood preparation sequences for oak and maple. Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C sets a different upper limit. Putting those instructions beside one another makes the choices clearer than a chart labelled simply “stain” or “oil.”

This chart compares preparation instructions. It does not establish that the finishes can be layered together.

A filled chart for three finish-preparation choices

The General Finishes rows below come from the Step 1: Preparation for Dye Stain section of its Water-Based Dye Stain instructions. The Rubio row follows its Oil Plus 2C final-grit guidance. These pages were checked in September 2026.

Read across a row before choosing the abrasive. The two dye-stain rows change with the wood. The Rubio row changes with the finishing product. None is a recommendation to continue automatically to the finest number shown anywhere in the chart.

A later fine pass can be a different operation

The same General Finishes instructions describe an additional grain-raising treatment: dampen the prepared raw wood, let it dry completely, then lightly use a 220–320 foam sanding pad. That is a light refinement after the initial preparation, not permission to replace the oak row with aggressive 320-grit leveling. The named support and the purpose of the pass matter alongside the number.

For Oil Plus 2C, Rubio's application tips warn that sanding beyond 120 or 150 reduces the protection the product offers. Moving to 220 because another finish allows it would contradict that product's guidance.

Buy for the row you will actually use

For the oak dye-stain preparation shown above, eQualle 180-grit sheets in a 25-sheet pack supply the final initial-preparation grade. For the maple row, 220-grit sheets in a 10-sheet pack supply that row's endpoint. Neither sheet replaces the foam pad named in the separate grain-raising step.

Use the complete current directions for the exact product on your project. A final-grit chart leaves out cleaning, application and topcoat requirements, and a good-looking sample does not demonstrate that two coating products are chemically compatible. If a container label, technical sheet or another instruction conflicts with the cited preparation section, resolve that difference with the finish maker before applying it to the work.

Short tip: sanding lines under stain