Abstract Abrasion of NBR appears as a dry (particulate) wear, similar to unfilled BR, NR, and SBR, and filled BR. The abraded surface seems textured on two scales: that of the ridges of the abrasion pattern and that of small particles of debris. The formation of macroridges on filled and unfilled NBR appears to involve two distinct ridges one formed after the other. First, fine and tightly spaced primary ridges, followed by rough and sparsely spaced secondary ridges. The abrasion pattern on unfilled NBR is relatively stable once steady state has been reached and the pattern has been fully developed. As for the filled NBR, both the scale and roughness of the secondary ridges are uneven, even if steady state has been reached completely. Wear rates of filled and unfilled NBR have been found to be proportional to an exponent n of the applied frictional work. The unsteady state rates of wear were also somewhat dependent on the number of revolutions of the test wheel. Both the proportionality coefficient k and exponent n are dependent upon the composition and also upon the wear state. The exponent n for unfilled NBR is greater than that for filled NBR, and for the unsteady state it is greater than that for steady state. Reversals in the relative rates of wear between filled and unfilled NBR are also observed at different severities of abrasion. This phenomenon perhaps reflects a competition between two different physical processes: crack growth and rupture of tongue tip. The dominant process may be crack growth at low severities of wear and rupture of the tongue tip at high severities of wear. Therefore, the fact that, at high severities, carbon black markedly reduces the rates of abrasion might be attributed to the tensile strength gain of rubber compounds due to reinforcement by carbon black.