Three elements make up the system The 5" non-woven Buffy Pad is pressed and twisted into the Grabber Pad (and then pressed into it again and reverse twisted, for solid holding power). The Grabber Pad protects the much more expensive Backer Pad from damage. The Backer Pad screws onto the 5/8" X 11" grinder/polisher arbor. Buffies are excellent for de-felting and removing loosely-held, weathered coatings, as well as bare, weathered wood. They are gentler than Osborn™ Brushes and they better preserve such fine log details as draw-knife ridges, and are particularly effective on interior surfaces (though they work well on exteriors). If used for an entire log home, it can take 100 to 200 Pads per average-sized home. Buffies work best to reduce cob-blasting texture - without removing all of the valuable stain holding roughness. They leave little or no swirls in the wood and work much faster than random orbital sanders. Great on most hand-rail spindles and on most flat surfaces (as well as round)!