3M Trizact vs. Norton Norax?

One important (to me) differance between the 3m trizact (non gator) belts and the norax belts is that the norton belts are water proof and the trizacts are not. I buy all my abeasives from tru grit. I like the one stop shopping. check the online catalog. the last I knew they carried pinstock glues etc, also.
 
For what it's worth, I've tried all of these belts and found that for rough grinding any ceramic belt seems to work and last about the same. I use Norax exclusively from X100 (about 120 grit) to X16 (about 1200). Depending on the final finish I don't necessarily go to the highest grit.

The thing that I like about Norax compared to any other belt is that they can be "recharged." That is, you can use the sharp edge of a piece of steel to refresh the grit a couple of times before the belt is completely worn out. This makes them quite a bit cheaper to use. Also as someone mentioned, they're waterproof, which is nice when you're impatient and don't want to dry the blade every time you dip it; and a slightly wetted belt seems to cut just a bit better. But maybe that's my imagination. I haven't done any formal testing on this stuff, just my observations. The belts are flexible enough to make cleaning up a plunge line work well too, though the Trizact work fine for me in that regard.
 
not to butt in but norax belts are not waterproof. they will take some moisture and still work but get them too wet and the abrasive will start to clump off in big goey gobs. the real thing with norax is when they get too wet, they create kind of muddy junk that tends to smear the grind scratch pattern. i always and wipe between passes with norax. gaters are good belts. the cool thing about norax is they give an amazingly even scratch pattern/finish and they last an insanely long time, especially if you sharpen them like Dave mentioned...
 
tmickley said:
not to butt in but norax belts are not waterproof. they will take some moisture and still work but get them too wet and the abrasive will start to clump off in big goey gobs. the real thing with norax is when they get too wet, they create kind of muddy junk that tends to smear the grind scratch pattern. ...
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You mean my water drip isn't a good idea?

:D Just kidding!
 
tmickley said:
the cool thing about norax is they give an amazingly even scratch pattern/finish and they last an insanely long time, especially if you sharpen them like Dave mentioned...
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Thanks Tracy, that's pretty much what I've experienced so far (and read about) with the Gators, so it seems they are similar in those respects at least.
 
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