A number of common thermal surfacing materials for soil tillage applications were ranked for abrasive wear by dry–sand–rubber–wheel testing according to ASTM G65. Focus was on plasma transferred arc (PTA) and powder welding (PW) deposition consisting of a nickel based self-fluxing matrix with and without additions of 50 or 60% tungsten carbide. For comparison PTA coated M2 tool steel and the quenched and tempered wrought spring steels EN C75S and EN30MnB5 were also tested. PTA and PW deposition techniques produced coatings with a similar level of abrasive wear resistance. Hardfacing with M2 and a 60 HRC nickel based self-fluxing grade showed ~30% and ~15% wear respective compared to the reference steels while the grades with additions of 50% carbide phase showed ~5% wear compared to the reference steels. By increasing the amount of tungsten carbide from 50 to 60 wt% abrasive wear resistance was increased by 25%.