Some of the various materials used in media blasting include, soda and bead blasting, aluminum oxide blasting, walnut shells, and corn meal. Even ice and dry ice can be used for rust removal and sand blasting effects on surfaces.

The benefits of these media blasting materials for rust removal and sand blasting is sometimes obvious and sometimes not.

Dry ice is kind of a special case and not something you could accomplish easily and safely at home, but its advantage is that moments after it has hit the material, there is no residue whatsoever. It’s considered to be “carbon neutral”, because something hasn’t been burnt or consumed to make it, which would add to its so called “carbon footprint.”

Ice chips are another media, that are momentarily hard and abrasive, yet the only residue is water.

Walnut shells are particularly hard and make a good abrasive, while other nut shells can be softer, but effective at gently removing other materials or rust.

Corn cobs or corn meal are another media for “sand blasting” and probably someone’s great idea of what to do with something that otherwise would have gone into the landfill.

Aluminum oxide blasting is probably a more obvious one. It’s the same material that’s used in most sandpaper and its grit or coarseness is determined by the particle size.