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What's a good belt sander for sharpening?
- Thread starter dinozzo
- Start date
Belt sanding?....for knives you own? Bad Idea. Unless your a pro,and know what your doing is probably the worst idea.The heat generated from doing so will most likely toast the edge.Even if you get away with not over heating the edge,the geometry will be different because you removed metal that should be there and is no longer there.So best bet is either learn by becoming a knife maker,or just hand sharpen.
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Nah, its easy to learn, and fingers make great "it's too hot" gauges
Convexed knives on a belt sander are wicked fast to sharpen and beat stone/stick sharpening any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Ask Esav, he skips church to convex sharpen on Sunday!
(or maybe there is another good reason?)
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Belt sander, not belt sanding, more along the lines of leather belts for stropping, also i know what it entails, how it works and what to do. and taking it nice and slow and using something called water wont mess up the heat treat.
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I understand where your coming from, but people do sharpen with belt sanders all the time...i have a friend who has had lots of practice with this..
not to be rude here but i asked for a recommendation of a certain a type of machine...
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- Oct 27, 2008
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I don't know about that even for basic carbon steels the temper is around 400*F and it should start to be uncomfortable for your fingers at around 130*F metal conducts heat pretty well so unless you have some insanely thick and crazy wide blade you should be able to notice before it gets too hot and dip it in your water bucket.
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Thanks man, that would be a big help
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I just set up a Harbor Freight 1X30 in my basement about two hours ago. Forty bucks for the belt sander and another ten for belts, two each 40. 80 and 120 grit. A friend of mine has two that he has set up for his needs.
I'll be practicing on junk knives until I'm comfortable working with nicer stuff. You won't be doing professional knife work but they're great for hobby work.
I'll be practicing on junk knives until I'm comfortable working with nicer stuff. You won't be doing professional knife work but they're great for hobby work.
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An Arkansas stone. $20 at Dicks Sporting Goods, get a coarse and a fine one if your knives are really dull. Then take an old leather belt and glue a chunk of it to a piece of wood for a strop it's not all that hard to learn and I can get razor sharp edges in under twenty minutes. Or, tip a cofee cup over and drag the edge on that, I finally tried this on my Ka-Bar, I was surprised by the edge I got back. Anything but a grinder, it's not a good idea, I've seen many blades totally ruined this way.
Ever since I learned to use belt sander (and ruined couple average price folders while learning), I can never go back to stones. The slower the belt speed the easier to learn, obviously, and less likely to cause damage to the knife. I was pretty caution at the beginning, wearing heavy gloves, eye protection and mask; water dipping after every single stoke, but now I can touch up the blade without any of those, and dip in the water every 3-4 strokes. Practicing is the key and experience makes perfection. I now run my belt at full speed and the I can sharpen/profile whatever exotic steel (ZDP, SG2) within minutes while it took me 3-4 hrs to do a ZDP blade with diamond plates. Stropping is where the belt sander really shines, flip on the machine for 20 seconds and the blades get right back to hair whittling sharpness. It's much cheaper to use the machine, if I would've known earlier I wouldn't have spent on Lansky, Sharpmaker + UF + diamond, Diamond plates, horse butt leather, diamond paste and what not.
Bench grinder on the other hand, is very difficult to keep the edge consistent, specially with a smaller one and too imprecise for my need
Bench grinder on the other hand, is very difficult to keep the edge consistent, specially with a smaller one and too imprecise for my need
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I second the Harbor Freight 1x30. It's affordable enough to learn on.
- Joined
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I tried Nate3993's HF 1x30 and knew I needed a grinder. I dropped $300 for a Kalamazoo 1x42 and never looked back
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[youtube]vJqYXWnCgT4[/youtube]
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Harbor Freight 1x30 is great for starting out, then get your belts from Lee Valley (do a online search). You'll need a few 320 grit and up, also get 2 leather strops (or just one if you want to save some $) plus some white polishing compound.
After practicing on some cheap blades, you'll be able to put mirror polishes on your good knives.
It isn't difficult to learn how to use a belt, especially after you play around a bit with some practice knives.
After practicing on some cheap blades, you'll be able to put mirror polishes on your good knives.
It isn't difficult to learn how to use a belt, especially after you play around a bit with some practice knives.
And how many knives have you sharpened on a belt sander?
Done with a 1X30 belt sander, no heat up, cuts like a laser now, and holds an amazing edge with the micro-bevel.
Not to burst YOUR bubble, but by the time your blade temper is ruined, your finger which pushes the blade has most likely received some minor burns......