Cork belts for sharpening?

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scs.knives

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Mar 5, 2010
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I was wondering if a cork belt (one with no grit) could be used with buffing compound for sharpening? would it work as well as a leather belt?
 
I feel that cork belts are great for polishing but are not the best for raising a burr on their own.

If I am using a cork belt I raise a burr, run it up to 400-600 grit then use the belt to polish the edge.

I sometimes use a couple of cork belts, a buffer then a leather belt to polish and strop an edge to hair popping sharp.

To answer your question I haven't used a cork belt as a substitute for a leather belt but yes, they do work well with compound.

Be sure to break in the belt very well, I like to use a rounded bar of hardened, decarbed steel.
 
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Yeah I was just wondering if a grit-less cork belt would work just like a leather belt for a final stropping.
 
scs.knives said:
Yeah I was just wondering if a grit-less cork belt would work just like a leather belt for a final stropping.
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From my experience it won't work just like a leather belt but will get a knife very sharp. I almost always use a leather belt for the final stropping so I am not too sure. You could hand strop with as little as a leather scrap, it won't take much work if the knife is ready to be stropped to get it to crazy sharp.
 
It works for me. I finish convex edges with a slack cork polishing belt that's well broken in and covered in green chrome buffing compound.

It'll get you to hair popping if you've taken the edge up far enough with regular belts, real fast, but you have to run it with the knife edge down, i.e. the belt travelling over the back of the edge first, otherwise there's a good chance you'll damage the belt or send a blade flying.

Anyway, I love the cork polishing belt. Although if I were doing final flat beveled edges, I'd be finishing on stones or with paper on a plate.
 
The trick with any use of cork belts is to break them in.

Take a hard piece of steel. like the spine on a bowie. and lean into the belt hard. Do this for five to ten minutes ( use a timer) and don't stop until time is up. At this point the belt will be ready for use.
My answer to cork belt break-in questions is, "When you think you have worn it out, it is finally ready to use".
 
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