Recommendation? Which 2" x 72" belts for knife making?

I did notice for handles, AO seems to work better than Ceramic on wood and micarta.
 
I've tried dressing belts with a diamond Stone dresser before. Trizact Gators can be dressed, but that's the only one I really had success with dressing. Other belts it just dulls and flattens it
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Since we are getting So many good responses....

Does anyone Dress their used belts?

I feel some of my ceramic, coarse belts Should have more life in them, and I want to try dressing them with a diamond
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I have had the same experience as Taz. I tried dressing a relatively new Blaze 50 grit that was gunked up with some micarta that the eraser was not removing, it was my last time trying to dress a ceramic belt.
 
I buy my rubber erasers from HF

And my spring glue clamps.

Pretty much the only reason I go in There.
 
Navman, I've noticed the same. Micarta, G10, ironwood, stabilized burls, natural woods, home made micarta, all work much better with AO compared to ceramic belts. Even the Zirconium Oxide belts don't work as well. Kinda nice that the cheaper product works better for once!

I need to go to HF and get a new rubber cleaner block, mine is getting down to a nub. Has anyone tried the ratcheting clamps from HF yet for epoxying handles? Are they any better at not twisting the handle materials compared to C clamps? I still get movement on the F bar clamps when I squeeze them, too.
 
36 Grit-VSM Actirox
60,80,120 Grit -VSM 880 Ceramic
220 Grit- Ceramic J-Flex (Hermes or Deerfos)
Finishing Belts- Trizact 160, 100, 45
 
While I listed my favorite belts above, the dirty little secret is that works awesome for me is no good for you. The quality of the belt is subjective. Everyone has a different grinder, running at a different speed, with different attachments. What I consider heavy pressure, you consider medium pressure and someone else considers light pressure. We all grind differently and you will need to find what works best for you. Get a few of each belt and try them out. I use to only use 3m Ceramics, then I switched to Fandeli because they were cheap, then I switched to VSM because they were cheaper than the 3M but gave just about the same performance and life. I used the bright red VSM 870 for quite awhile and the switched to the 880. I found the 880 had similar life expectancy, but gave a little bit better final finish. The grit seems to be more uniform. This is just my two cents, you will need see what works best for you.
 
Belt choice is totally subjective.

I don't really care for the VSMs but have used many because of the price point.

I really like the 3M Cubitron 947As which are for low to medium pressure. I use the 40+ and 60+. They leave a consistent scratch pattern, track true, and the the grain pattern breaks down with my use so belts last longer
 
FWIW, supergrit sells what I think they call "open grit" AO belts that I use for handles and non-metal applications. Less grit per square inch so they don't load up like my knife grinding belts do.
 
J. Hoffman said:
Yes
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Can the gator type catch the edge of the blade? I've used the smoother Trizact but not the big knobbed gator type ones. What do you use those for mostly?

And what I don't understand about Trizact is that they have the smoother ones and the big knobbed ones. What 3M naming helps you differentiate between the two?

The big knobbed ones are "CF", I assume that is how you differentiate them?

 
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Had a couple moments of belt clarity this last week.

First one was I finally had success using the diamond dressing belt tool. When I have tried dressing ceramic belts to get a little more belt life it has always been a disappointment. Well i came off an
A300 Trizact and when I started using the A100 I was getting rogue scratch marks so finally realized that there was probaly metal chuncks impeded in the belt and used the belt dresser to get a clean belt surface. Worked grest.

The other revelation was when shaping handles and using a 50 grit Blaze belt. I normally run the grinder at around 40 percent speed but thought if I am having glazing issues with the Blaze belts why not try faster speed so bumped up to 60 on the VFD and it made a huge difference on how the belt worked.
 
Seedy Lot said:
Had a couple moments of belt clarity this last week.

First one was I finally had success using the diamond dressing belt tool. When I have tried dressing ceramic belts to get a little more belt life it has always been a disappointment. Well i came off an
A300 Trizact and when I started using the A100 I was getting rogue scratch marks so finally realized that there was probaly metal chuncks impeded in the belt and used the belt dresser to get a clean belt surface. Worked grest.

The other revelation was when shaping handles and using a 50 grit Blaze belt. I normally run the grinder at around 40 percent speed but thought if I am having glazing issues with the Blaze belts why not try faster speed so bumped up to 60 on the VFD and it made a huge difference on how the belt worked.
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Are you referring to one of those "diamond grinding wheel dresser" as those sold on Amazon?
 
Oceanrider, I used the ones I got on Amazon. It looks like a T with some grit on the head. They work great on the Trizact Gators!
 
Actirox are the best 36 grit belt I've used... The other week I rough ground 15 of these from full thickness blanks to what you see here - all with one actirox belt. Keep in mind they are fully hardened magnacut (64hrc) I will say I do rough grind under coolant though which allows me to use higher speeds and more pressure without any issues.
PXL_20230722_021946415.jpg
 
Taz said:
Oceanrider, I used the ones I got on Amazon. It looks like a T with some grit on the head. They work great on the Trizact Gators!
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thanks Taz! That is what I thought. I have a couple of those I was using for another purpose.

The only issue I might have with one is that the one I have is 1 3/4" wide. I would want to dress the belt as flat as possible. Would be better if there was something like that that was like 2.5" wide and you could find a way to bring it perfectly perpendicular to the belt
 
REK Knives said:
Actirox are the best 36 grit belt I've used... The other week I rough ground 15 of these from full thickness blanks to what you see here - all with one actirox belt. Keep in mind they are fully hardened magnacut (64hrc) I will say I do rough grind under coolant though which allows me to use higher speeds and more pressure without any issues.
View attachment 2260200
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I think from your YouTube channel that you like to use coolant. Do you always use coolant with them? And what type of grinder is that. It is nice that it has a large sideplate and a water trough (or so it looks like that). And just curious, do you cut the blanks out yourself? How are those cut out?
 
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