best value grinder belts

[james terrio]

The number of blades a belt will grind will vary with the type of metal being ground.

I haven't noticed a huge difference when grinding say, O1 vs CPM steels*, but I wasn't really keeping track. Either way, I definitely agree the high-quality ceramics pay for themselves pretty quickly.

Not sure how many folks use aluminum for guards/pommels etc, but it probably wouldn't hurt to point out it's not a good idea to grind aluminum and steel on the same equipment. Mixed aluminum and iron/steel dust, if it catches a spark, can apparently burn like crazy I haven't tried it myself but it comes up from time to time.

Dirty belts used on steel, then wood can leave nasty smudges on the wood (that, I have tried myself. Didn't like it). Another good reason to keep a couple (cheaper) AO belts just for handle material.

EDIT: * that's grinding annealed steel of various types, surely the differences would be much more apparent on HT'ed steel.