Abstract The wear properties for wood were examined using 2-body and 3-body abrasion tests. The testing methodologies were designed so that the results from the two methods could be compared. The results showed that the 3-body abrasive wear rate for the axial, radial, and tangential sections dispersed at higher applied surface pressures. As a result, the 3-body abrasion test did not wear continuously, unlike the 2-body abrasion test at equivalent applied surface pressures. The critical value below which the 3-body abrasion test is valid could be estimated by the applied surface pressure and the wood specimen's and the counterface material's yield stresses. The number of contacting abrasive grains in the valid region of the 3-body abrasion test was found to agree approximately with that of 2-body abrasion. However, when the 3-body abrasion test was conducted above the critical value, the number of contacting abrasive grains decreased with repeated friction.