2 x 72 Belt Recommendation

[SLC_Blades]

Hey everyone! Just got my 2 x 72 and now I need a little help with belt selection so that I don’t completely destroy my bank account. From what I gathered, Norton blaze belts are the best for rough grinding and trizact gator are the best for higher grit finishing work, but I need a recommendation for how many belts of a certain grit I should by as I don’t know how long these belts last.

Should I stock up on the norton blaze 36-80 grit and only get a couple higher grit belts? Vice-versa? I know that in a perfect world, I should just stock up on a bunch of everything, but I’m still a hobbyist and don’t feel like spending hundreds of dollars on these things especially considering that I just dropped a bunch of money on the grinder itself. Thanks for the read!

 

[skillgannon]

Hey everyone! Just got my 2 x 72 and now I need a little help with belt selection so that I don’t completely destroy my bank account. From what I gathered, Norton blaze belts are the best for rough grinding and trizact gator are the best for higher grit finishing work, but I need a recommendation for how many belts of a certain grit I should by as I don’t know how long these belts last.

Should I stock up on the norton blaze 36-80 grit and only get a couple higher grit belts? Vice-versa? I know that in a perfect world, I should just stock up on a bunch of everything, but I’m still a hobbyist and don’t feel like spending hundreds of dollars on these things especially considering that I just dropped a bunch of money on the grinder itself. Thanks for the read!

Tell us a bit more about your new grinder.
Depending on your budget you can adjust quantity. I would recommend VSM over blaze to start out. I love blaze but you are going to screw up a few anyway so why not save a couple of bucks. I would get 2 belts of anything you want to demo. Your budget will tell you how many different types of belts you want to try. Assuming you are ordering from Pops like I do my starting list is:
10 of the blue AO/Zirconium in 40 grit. These will work for practice or unhardend steel but you will want them for handle shaping.
6 40grit VSM Ceramic
6 60grit VSM Ceramic
6 80grit VSM Ceramic
1 each of the 3M "gator" belts
20 120 grit AO
12 220 grit AO
12 400 grit AO

That will do a lot of knives and give you a better idea of what you want I would try 2 at a time of better belts like Blaze and I would save them for grinding hardened steel. You should be able to tell the difference better then.

One more thing that I would recommend. Is after you heat treat your first knife start final grind with a new belt. You will get better results and learn faster. As they dull use them for less important things: hard flats, soft flats, profile, garbage. Ceramic belts last way longer than you would believe but the loose a lot of precision.

 

[SLC_Blades]

Tell us a bit more about your new grinder.
Depending on your budget you can adjust quantity. I would recommend VSM over blaze to start out. I love blaze but you are going to screw up a few anyway so why not save a couple of bucks. I would get 2 belts of anything you want to demo. Your budget will tell you how many different types of belts you want to try. Assuming you are ordering from Pops like I do my starting list is:
10 of the blue AO/Zirconium in 40 grit. These will work for practice or unhardend steel but you will want them for handle shaping.
6 40grit VSM Ceramic
6 60grit VSM Ceramic
6 80grit VSM Ceramic
1 each of the 3M "gator" belts
20 120 grit AO
12 220 grit AO
12 400 grit AO

That will do a lot of knives and give you a better idea of what you want I would try 2 at a time of better belts like Blaze and I would save them for grinding hardened steel. You should be able to tell the difference better then.

One more thing that I would recommend. Is after you heat treat your first knife start final grind with a new belt. You will get better results and learn faster. As they dull use them for less important things: hard flats, soft flats, profile, garbage. Ceramic belts last way longer than you would believe but the loose a lot of precision.

I have a pheer 454 variable speed with a flat platten and an 8” contact wheel

 

[Fred.Rowe]

I believe I've tried every belt on the market and in the lower grit belts 3M Cubatron 984f ceramic belts are the longest lasting belts as well as being the most aggressive cutters. Keep in mind ceramic belts are made to be fractured, where you use a carbide tool to resurface a slightly used belt. Pop's has the best prices I know of at the moment.
I purchase, in the 984f belts, 6 - 36 grit 6 - 60 grit and 6 - 120 grit. Everything after these I purchase Gator belts, the green ones. The gator belts last a long time because of how they are used, low pressure at a far slower speed. Buy the best belts you can afford. You will buy fewer of them because of their extended life. Cork belts are excellent for finish work as well.
Good luck, you purchased a fine machine, buy some fine belts to match. Fred