Most economical / best bang for your buck ceramic belts?

G

guy-montag

Joined
Jun 30, 2011
Messages
56
I need to buy fresh 2x72 belts, and after using some Norton Blaze belts and 3M Cubitrons, I'm looking for ceramic ones.

It's hard to tell between national brands and smaller ones what ceramic belt gives you the most bang for your buck in terms of dollars spent per amount of hardened steel ground.

Any recommendations?
 
guy-montag said:
I need to buy fresh 2x72 belts, and after using some Norton Blaze belts and 3M Cubitrons, I'm looking for ceramic ones.

It's hard to tell between national brands and smaller ones what ceramic belt gives you the most bang for your buck in terms of dollars spent per amount of hardened steel ground.

Any recommendations?
Click to expand...
I use only Klingspor belts but never tried other brand so i can not recommended you belts .But there is one thing you should be aware .......There are belts which need low/medium pressure while grinding and belts for heavy pressure . Difference is only in number of grains on given surface .If you grind free hand I think you should not use belts for heavy pressure .I just buy new belts and again i forget to order belts for low pressure just to see difference .......
 
Everyone grinds differently and everyone's machine is a little different (speed, power etc.) You are best off trying a few different ones to see what works best for you. I've had good luck with the VSM 870 and 880.
 
I didn't use any "expensive" belts yet, but I also got good life from VSM and Bora ceramics.
 
I've mostly been using the VSM 760 line. I only like the 60 grit belts though. The 100 grit 760 gives me issues. I want to try the 120 grit as well as the 870 and 885 lines. Not sure what the difference is.

I've tried the orange norton belts and wasn't a fan. Not bad, but not spectacular either.

I've also tried the combat ceramics belts and those were almost unusable. Some had missing grit causing artifacts. The ones not missing grit last all of 1 bevel (not even 1 knife) for me, but some people swear by them so your milage may vary.
 
I've had good luck with the VSM 885 line of belts from 60 to 120 grit, and the price is good.

I also like the Sankyo belts in the Aluminum Oxide abrasive.

When I hit 220 and above i use J-Flex almost exclusively...
 
The way to figure out best bang for the buck is to figure out how many knives (of equal steel and size) you can grind with each belt. Then you will know your cost per blade for that specific belt. For me the most expensive belts are cheapest because of how many blades I can grind with them.
 
which cubitrons ? i get the most knives out of a 36 grit 3m 984f. its a 13 dollar belt, but i get three the knives out of it compared to an 8$ belt.
 
I get the most bang for my buck with VSM XK870. I've tried the other VSM's, 3M belts and blaze belts and with the way I grind, they aren't worth the extra money.
 
I like my cubitrons for 60 - 120 grinding. I haven't found a better performing or longer lasting 220 ceramic than the Hermes cr476j's.
 
For ceramics VSM 885, Cubitrons and Blaze are good choices.
 
On the subject of economy: I've save a lot of belt money by grinding much longer with 36 or 60 grit belts. I was switching to 120 grit belts way to early and chewing thru those like crazy.

Now, for example, if I'm 'hogging' a kitchen knife with a 50 grit belt I take the edge down to .020". Then with a 120 take it down to .013". 220 down to at least .009". Then the final grit to .006" or so.

Before, I wasn't measuring edge thickness on the initial belts, so I'm not sure what I was doing. But, I bet I was stopping the 50 grit belt closer to .040". That forced me to use a lot of 120 and 220 belts to get the edge thin enough.

That little change in process has saved me a bunch of belt $$.

BTW - I use a spreadsheet to determine how far to take the edge for each grit in order to remove scratches. It seems to work as well as changing directions while grinding.

Grind Plan.png
 
That's amazing Sando! Clearly you've put a lot of thought into this, I've just thrown more belts at the problem previously, but this is a lot better than what I was doing.

I've definitely been moving to 80 / 120 grit belts too early when I just need to remove metal and surface finish isn't an issue.

Sando said:
On the subject of economy: I've save a lot of belt money by grinding much longer with 36 or 60 grit belts. I was switching to 120 grit belts way to early and chewing thru those like crazy.

Now, for example, if I'm 'hogging' a kitchen knife with a 50 grit belt I take the edge down to .020". Then with a 120 take it down to .013". 220 down to at least .009". Then the final grit to .006" or so.

Before, I wasn't measuring edge thickness on the initial belts, so I'm not sure what I was doing. But, I bet I was stopping the 50 grit belt closer to .040". That forced me to use a lot of 120 and 220 belts to get the edge thin enough.

That little change in process has saved me a bunch of belt $$.

BTW - I use a spreadsheet to determine how far to take the edge for each grit in order to remove scratches. It seems to work as well as changing directions while grinding.

View attachment 1790419
Click to expand...
 
AVigil said:
For ceramics VSM 885, Cubitrons and Blaze are good choices.
Click to expand...

I've used Cubitrons and Blaze, and they're both pretty good, but not exactly cheap. Those VSM ceramic belts are roughly half the cost of the equivalent Cubitron / Blaze belts, definitely going to give those a try.
 
guy-montag said:
I've used Cubitrons and Blaze, and they're both pretty good, but not exactly cheap. Those VSM ceramic belts are roughly half the cost of the equivalent Cubitron / Blaze belts, definitely going to give those a try.
Click to expand...
VSM are my go to for low grit ceramics, but not everyone likes them. There are many choices. I am lucky enough to live near Trugrit abrasives and try about every single belt available.

One thing Trugrit has over other companies is they are actually an Industrial abrasive company and have way more belt options then the others and no minimum belt purchase. So you can try one of several before making a big investment.

That being said currently my choices are VSM 885 50 and 100 grit, Hermes 80 grit j flex, Hermes 365 100, 200, 400 grit. Trizact gators for finishing in various grits, 200 400 800 cork.

90% is done with the vsm and hermes 80 grit j flex, others are finishing belts.
 
I really like VSM. I recently got some belts from Pheonix Abrasives, and I've really liked them as well. They have a blue J flex ceramic that I've been very impressed with the longevity of. Easily the longest lasting J flex I've used. They also sell some red VSM that seem comparable to the VSM I normally buy for TruGrit. I really like the red ceramic Phoenix "Metal Eater" belt too. Seems like it's relatively inexpensive, and cuts for longer than I thought it would.

All that being said, remember that there's a number of factors that affect the longevity and efficiency of a grinding belt, and how much "bang for the buck" you can get out of one.
Ceramics often like speed and pressure. Certain materials will clog them up or glaze them over faster than others. You can often get quite a bit more life out of a belt by dressing it. I like to use the edge of an old diamond polishing pad I have to lightly scrape across the belt while it's running. A good belt cleaning stick also helps clean some of the extra junk out.
Also, make sure to break the corners of the knives you're grinding with an old belt. There's nothing worse than shearing off 80% of your brand new belt's grit with the first couple passes because you didn't break the corners first. :D
 
Drew Riley said:
I like to use the edge of an old diamond polishing pad I have to lightly scrape across the belt while it's running.
Click to expand...
I've heard you can use an old file as well, do you think that'd do the trick?
Drew Riley said:
A good belt cleaning stick also helps clean some of the extra junk out.
Click to expand...

I've got a rubber belt cleaning stick I use, but it honestly really only works when grinding non-metal stuff like handle material.
Drew Riley said:
Also, make sure to break the corners of the knives you're grinding with an old belt. There's nothing worse than shearing off 80% of your brand new belt's grit with the first couple passes because you didn't break the corners first.
Click to expand...

I may have done this once or twice lol...
 
I really like the VSM's. I have been using the 36 grit more to get the bevel roughed in and established, then go to 50 for most of my grinding. I spend time at 80 to try to get all of the 36 and 50 grit scratches out before I go to 120. I tried grinding all at 50 and then 120, but my grinds weren't as clean and I was taking a lot of time at 120, so I dropped down in grit and added another step. I like the flexible Green Hermes 120 and 220; they work really well for cleaning up plunge cuts since they are very flexible. After 120/220 stage, I go to 347 Gators A160, 100, 65, 45 and then scotchbrite blue or grey typically. I tried the Norax, but used them wet and killed them, so I gotta order more. I liked how they cut though! I have been playing with AO belts for blade finished before going to scotchbrite belts and have some of the self sharpening AO belts to try. For the J Flex, I am using the Super Nova 2" Scalloped from Pops; they work great on handles and they are 2" wide edge to edge at the widest part, so you get more belt compared to the other scalloped belts with deeper scallops and 1" of actual belt width.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top