Sharpening w/ Fine Grit Belts

M

me2

Joined
Oct 11, 2003
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For those who havent tried it, get some fine belts for the Harbor Freight 1x30 and follow it up with a honing leather belt with some compound on it. Even my cheap kitchen knives rival the best edge off the leather so far, a home made M2 puukko blade hardened to 64-65 HRc. I started with a 40 micron (320 grit) belt, then a 20 micron (500 grit), and ended with a 9 micron (1200 grit) belt, and power stropped on the 1x30 honing belt with white compound from Sears. Free hair shaving 1/8" to 1/4" above my skin. The M2 blade is still slightly better, but I havent tried this on it yet. Hey, Thom Brogan, if your listening, I also picked up some PSA backed 0.3 micron (~12,000 grit?) Mylar honing films this week. I'll have to see how they do on the M2.
 
The 1x30 HF is a great tool to have. The .3 micron paper you have should be more around 60,000+ grit.
 
You JERK!!! Now I have to figure out how to get my knives to "free shave" instead of the good ole fashioned "shave". ARRGGGHHHH!! LOL ,this is actually good to hear. I think I'll bump a small belt sander up "the list" a few notches.
 
Sometimes ignorance is bliss, isnt it? Here's another one to drive you nuts. Try for a shaving edge off an 800 grit waterstone or a coarse Norton India stone. Then try for an edge that will whittle hair off those same stones. The trick is COMPLETELY removing any burr and damaged/fatigued metal with the coarse stones, or never letting a burr form in the first place. I've whittled beard hair once off an 800 grit waterstone. I've never been able to do it again. As soon as I flatten it, I'll try off a 220 grit waterstone. Read on for further details. Hopefully, Jerry Hossum will come in and link to his tutorial on sharpening a machete with these, or equal, belts. That's where I learned it. Wanna really freak people out? Go ahead and take the time, just once, to put an edge like this on a machete, then test it by whittling beard or arm hair held between your fingers. Beard, at least mine, is much easier to do than head or arm hair.

This chart is where I estimated the grit based on particle size. 8000 grit is 1 micron, 0.5 is 16,000, so yea, the 0.3 would be about 20,000 or so.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=46224&cat=1,43072
 
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