Cork Belt Question

J

Jebadiah_Smith

Joined
Jul 28, 2004
Messages
878
Hello everyone,

I have been making knives for a little while. My last belt order, I bought a cork belt for polishing/sharpening. When it arrived, well, it was a whole lot different than what I expected. It is rough and bumpy, and only polishes in little lines with rouge. I let it soak in water overnight to no effect. What should I do? Do you guys use cork belts? Am I doing something wrong? Im starting to wish I hadnt wasted the money on it.

Thanks for any help.
 
My experience with cork belts was that they worked okay when you fill them with green buffing compound especially the 400 grit. on another forum there was a individual who was talking about how his cork belt was over a year old and going strong. mine had a catastophic belt failure which injured my hand and put me out of commision for two weeks. the belt only separated about half way and peeled back and cam around wrapped around my wrist and threw my hand into my grinder stand. my advice would be to toss the belt and cut your losses.
 
thanks for the link Steve

Ill be careful Tacmedic. My friend broke a belt once and it hit him in the face five times before he even knew what was happening.
 
I don't mess around with then cork belts, brother. My advice s to get into hand-polishing. Its the only way to assure 100% confidence. :D
 
Cork belts don't begin to work well until the rough surface is worn down fairly smooth then continue working until the backing starts to show through.

All belts will break and cork belts are not any more prone to it than any other grit, though as they wear thin they can be torn easily when putting them on and off the grinder.

I have been using them for nearly 20 years in my commercial metal polishing shop and still remember my reaction at looking at my first one...my goodness it is rough, they must have sent me the wrong grit.
 
My belt is plain. From what I have read now, it seems pretty useless. It was supposed to be for for sharpening polished edges. But is seems that compound will just act as a lubricant and do nothing. Oh well, at least it wasnt too expensive, but I could have gotten a couple of other belts instead.
 
Holy crap Tacmedic that's a wild story! I've been so lucky with belts, I've never had one break without giving me warning first. I shudder every time I read a story about a mishap with one of these belts, they're way too big and moving way too fast for any mishap to not be really ugly!!!

As for cork belts, the only real thing I use them for is getting out any missed grind marks. When the belts are fairly new they really seem to do a great job cleaning up a blade.

Have never tried loading one up with compound, will have to get that a try with one of my 800 grit cork belts.

Sean
 
The proper compound to use is a green stainless steel cut and colour compound which has enough bite to remove metal quickly, even on a plain cardboard wheel.

A few years back I was giving a polishing seminar in my shop to a bunch of knifemakers and one fellow asked what action I suggested when a belt broke. I said that when a belt is about to break it usually starts making a slight popping noise first so I just step aside and allow the belt to break. Well that brought a confused look to the face of the fellow who asked the question, then it dawned on me, I asked him if he was in the habit of sitting on a stool while grinding........seems he was and that was the reason he couldn't figure how I had time to step aside. If you are sitting and grinding it can be dangerous because you can't get out of the way as easily as if you were standing while grinding and when you are sitting you are pretty exposed to serious injury if you get my meaning.
 
That's a good call George. I stand when I'm working so it's easy for me to step aside and let the belt do it's thing.

Thanks for the comment on the compound, I've got green kicking around the buffin wheel and will give it a try.

Sean
 
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