Cork Belts Revisited

LongRifle

LongRifle

Joined
Apr 5, 2000
Messages
2,018
I know I've posted before about cork belts...but I have to reemphasize how much time they save.

I'm using 220, 400, 600, 800, all charged with the appropriate compound. I'm always blown away by how quickly the belts polish; they do not cut into and do not put marks in the blade. At 800 the blade is nearly mirror. I buy the belts from Pops', they're pretty inexpensive and seem to last forever.

This piece is my latest. The blade came out mirror flat and I started hand sanding at 600.

I can't recommend cork belts enough, they are a huge time saver for me.

I'm not going to say how long it took me to hand rub this blade, but it was fast. Realy fast :).

One word of warning though; make sure you store the belts separatly and do your absolute best to keep from contaminating them.

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Matt
 
I appreciate you posting this info again. I happen to be a slow learner, and am always struggling to find belts that I like. I'll give these a try.
 
Yes,

Thanks a bunch. Could you please tell us exactly what compound you use with what grit cork belt?

Gratefully,

John Frankl
 
Matt, I'm impressed, and I'm a hard-core finishing stone user. Please do what the guys said and fill us in on the grit/compound that you like to use. Maybe some do's and dont's, techniques, etc. Nice looking finish my friend.
 
Thanks guys! I'm really not sure what the name of the compound is, they have it at Lowes here (I bought it a year ago and I can't remember the name to save my life). All I do is apply the coursest of the compounds to the 220 belt, then move up the ladder until I get to the finest compound (it's white, not pink, if that helps :rolleyes: ). If I had to guess I'd say the white is 1000 grit. The next time I'm at Lowes I'll get the name and grit. The compounds I'm using aren't anything special so I'm sure whatever you have on hand will work. But you do want to match compound to corresponding belt as closely as possible.

The only other tip I can think of is to break the belts in really well. Use the edge of a piece of steel and knock some of the "grit" off the belt and break the edges in by running the belt off the edge of the platen.

When you're first getting the hang of the cork belts it wouldn't be a bad idea to clamp the knife down and do a little hand rubbing to see if you've missed any deeper scratches.
 
I've got the KMG with the three speed pulleys. I run the belts on the slowest speed. I think a 2hp variable speed is next on my list though :). The belts don't seem to generate much heat, so maybe a little faster wouldn't hurt. I'll try it on the next knife.
 
Thanks for the info Matt. I've just started using the cork belts and they do seem to cut down on the hand sanding. I was told to try belt lube on them and I didn't like it at all, very nasty, the compounds work much better.
BTW, very nice knife.

Don Hanson lllsunfishforge.com
 
Hey you f-stick, this info was supposed to be for ME only!!! :mad:

;)


Thanks again for passing it along Matt. I know I'll be putting the info to good use in short order!
 
If you're going to use my terms you better start quoting me...f stick :). I gave you my super secret time saver, super secret hamon recipe, and ultra super secret etch. Man, all I do is give and give and this is what I get :).
 
I think the problem is that you are sharing with Nick. His work is allready great. There are those of us out here who are much more needy and would appreciate the secrets much more.
 
Trust me, Nick needs all the help we can give him, mostly not knife related help ;). When you start taking advice from me, you're in trouble :) :cool: ;).
 
Thanks for the tip -- I've tried the cork belts after talking to you about them, but haven't had much luck with them. I'll keep trying though - I hate excessive hand-rubbing. :(
 
Anybody is welcome to come by the shop for a first hand demonstration, that would probably answer a lot of questions. Why don't you make the eight hour drive Michael, you can sit in the shop and get covered in dust and grime with me. You'll be polishing with the cork belts in no time :).

I think a big part of my low finishing times is I go back and forth; not just towards me when hand rubbing. It takes a little getting used to but that's how I do it :).
 
LongRifle said:
I think a big part of my low finishing times is I go back and forth; not just towards me when hand rubbing. It takes a little getting used to but that's how I do it :).
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I do the same, Matt, but it seems to take me forever and a day to hand-polish a blade. I'll have to try the cork belt thing.
 
LongRifle said:
Anybody is welcome to come by the shop for a first hand demonstration, that would probably answer a lot of questions. Why don't you make the eight hour drive Michael, you can sit in the shop and get covered in dust and grime with me. You'll be polishing with the cork belts in no time :).

I think a big part of my low finishing times is I go back and forth; not just towards me when hand rubbing. It takes a little getting used to but that's how I do it :).
Click to expand...

It would be worth the drive if it would save me an hour off each blade!
 
All right Michael, you've forced me to reveal the time frame...it took me under 10 minutes per side at 600--that's hand rubbing not total polishing time. I think that will probably save most of you an hour per blade :).

The advantage to machine finishing is you get to retain the crisp edges and grinds. The lower you start hand finishing with the more washed out grinds and edges become, for me at least. I'm finally getting to the point where I'm happy with my knives, up until now I broke most of the blades I finished.

I forgot to email you about the experimental bowie I was working on, Michael, I broke that one too. I took it to 90* back the other way to 90*, then to 120 when it finally snapped. I broke it in three pieces, the grain structure was very fine. I'll get something out to you one of these days :).

Mike, I sent one back to you :).
 
LongRifle said:
I forgot to email you about the experimental bowie I was working on, Michael, I broke that one too. I took it to 90* back the other way to 90*, then to 120 when it finally snapped. I broke it in three pieces, the grain structure was very fine.
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Breaking knives is fun. ;)

My problem is that I starting getting the same "waves" in my blades with the cork, but I wasn't using rouge either. I have a couple smaller blades in the queue and I'll try it again. I hate waves and ripples!!

By the way, that new blade of yours is outfreakingpimptasticstanding! :thumbup: :D
 
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