I also joined the Hossom 1" belt sander club and yesterday for the first time tried out different belts from Lee Valley Tools. I bought one each of the Blue Zirconia (40,80, 120) and only needed to use the 120 due to the very abrasive and quick cutting action. I also tried one each of the more expensive 3M belts all the way to 1200 grit. Once I used the 120 zirconia belt for the initial convexing, which took all of maybe a minute or two, switching to each of the finer grit 3M belts took longer than the actual sharpening passes which went very quickly. I then did a final hand stropping on a piece of leather with green rouge. The edges are all mirror polished and very evenly convexed.
The results I got were spectacular and I am extremely pleased with the setup. I have never gotten sharper, hair popping edges as easily and quickly. The three blades did not seem to heat up at all and I was very careful to do quick passes so as not to ruin the temper of the blades. I would recommend you practice on several beater blades to get the process down and learn to judge the required freehand holding angles.
