My new knife sharpener

markhait

markhait

Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
297
I went out the other day and bought a cheap
belt sander from Harbour Freight. They have
a store here in Michigan thats close to me.
Anyway...I bought it and indeed its cheap quality,
but I believe thats its good enough for what I
want it to do.
Belt_Sander.jpg

It only came with a 80 grit belt, which is way to
course for the knife sharpening that I wanted
it for. All they had in stock was 125 grit, so I
bought a pack of those.
Once I got home, I ordered some more belts from
Lee Valley. I ordered a 180, 320, 500 and a 1200
just for fun
I also ordered a leather belt for stropping.
Once I received the leather belt, I applied
some 15000 grit diamond paste.
Man o man what a edge you get!
After the knife is shaving sharp, I take it to
the strop and polish the edge. Sure makes
them look pretty!
On the picture of my Wetterlings axe, I polished the steel with a belt sander
and finished it with my Porter Cable random orbit sander 320 grit.
The casting isn't great as you can see, but I'll work on it a bit more soon.
Wetterlings.jpg


In case your wondering...if you can even see it, to the left
on the axe head picture, yes, thats arm hair!
Does a pretty good jobs on axes as well
This is pretty cool! and FUN
 
i would like to create a similar sharpening setup, but i have some v. basic questions. like:
does the belt rotate into or away from the knife edge ?
do you have an adjustable rest for the blade ?
what prevents the blade from over-heating as happens with a grinder ?
how do you know when to flip the blade over and start working on the other side ? (presence of a burr ?)
any other basic pointers will be much appreciated too, thanks, roland
 
rprocter said:
i would like to create a similar sharpening setup, but i have some v. basic questions. like:
does the belt rotate into or away from the knife edge ?
do you have an adjustable rest for the blade ?
what prevents the blade from over-heating as happens with a grinder ?
how do you know when to flip the blade over and start working on the other side ? (presence of a burr ?)
any other basic pointers will be much appreciated too, thanks, roland
Click to expand...
For grinding, I prefer edge up(going into the belt) with aluminium oxide belts but you can go with edge trailing, whatever works for you, when using leather belts you MUST go edge trailing or you'll cut right through the belt.

Unless you're going below 320grit belts, it doesn't overheat very fast, if it does heat up, then dunk it in a bucket of water.

When grinding the initial edge, do 5-10strokes each side till you can form a burr.

Congrats on your purchase, once you go to a belt sander, you'll wonder how you ever got by with sandpaper and leather/mousepads.
 
This sander rotates down in the picture I posted. What I do is lay it down so that when I roll the edge, I can see the shadow disappear. I've done it both ways and it seems to work fine. When I first got it though, I was a bit cocky and almost ruined a knife!
I did practice on some cheaper knives and felt like I knew what I was doing.
I went to touch up my Leatherman Wave and I just couldn't do it. I began to get really frustrated. What happened though was that I was having a hard time seeing the shadow and I kept changing the angle of the grind. It took me a bit to figure that out, but know I know and will be more careful. I did try it just as the posted picture shows and it actually was a lot easier than I had thought.
You just have to try it out and see what works for you.
Just don't get frustrated like me! Walk away and come back with a clear head and try to determine whats going on.
 
Forgot to answer your other questions.....
There is a rest, but I never installed it. I don't think it would help you out as this
belt sander ins't designed to do that kind of thing with a knife. Maybe it would?...
As Roger points out, they is very little heat generated with a belt sander using the higher grits. Even when I was getting frustrated and kept sanding, the knife never got too hot.
All I do is look for the burr. Unless the knife is really dull, you only will need a couple of passes before switching to the strop. It works that good!

Roger999...your right though, as I was sharpening my knife, I began to wonder WHY oh WHY did it take me this long to buy one! Struggling with those stones and sharpening "systems". For under $100 I was able to get something that works GREAT and fast with only a slight learning curve.
Ebay may be getting a few sharpening stones soon :)
 
That is funny about the arm hair thing. I did the same thing with my hatchet. It is a vintage True Temper, and it was fun to sharpen since the metal seems to respond quickly to sharpening. I may polish it up, just like you did. I bought it on ebay for about 16 with shipping. Have fun, and always wear goggles, even if you think you do not need to.
 
markhait said:
Forgot to answer your other questions.....
There is a rest, but I never installed it. I don't think it would help you out as this
belt sander ins't designed to do that kind of thing with a knife. Maybe it would?...
As Roger points out, they is very little heat generated with a belt sander using the higher grits. Even when I was getting frustrated and kept sanding, the knife never got too hot.
All I do is look for the burr. Unless the knife is really dull, you only will need a couple of passes before switching to the strop. It works that good!

Roger999...your right though, as I was sharpening my knife, I began to wonder WHY oh WHY did it take me this long to buy one! Struggling with those stones and sharpening "systems". For under $100 I was able to get something that works GREAT and fast with only a slight learning curve.
Ebay may be getting a few sharpening stones soon :)
Click to expand...

Do not be too hasty with your stones. You learned what a burr was with them. I am glad I did it with some gadgets prior to using a machine. I think it is a logical process. Fundamentals first.
 
A word of caution for those new to using a belt sander to sharpen. Your knives will shrink with considerably more speed than ever before. I use the belt sander and leather belt to sharpen to a shallower angle than I use for hand sharpening. My Delica currently has a back bevel at about 15 degrees. This was done on the belt sander and was the only bevel until it needed resharpening. I was able to touch it up 3 or 4 times on the Sharpmaker, adding a small microbevel on the 20 degree slots. Now it goes to the course and medium stone at 17 degrees, then to the Sharpmaker at 20. When the back bevel gets too thick, I'll start over. This makes for very quick hand sharpening, without excessive blade shrinkage. It only takes 10 to 20 strokes per side on the coarse hone to get a burr, then just work through the 1000 grit waterstone, the Sharpmaker, then the 0.3 micron honing film for stropping.

On another note, the flexible belts sharpen recurves quite well. If you want to try it out with some angle guides instead of purely free hand, try making a block to sharpen on the table the sander comes with. Mine looks like a rectangle with the long edge held vertical. Then, the bottom edge is cut at the desired sharpening angle, so it leans toward the belt a little. The blade to be sharpened is held against guide, between the guide and the belt. It is tricky to get the tips of skinners and such, but works great for Santoku style kitchen knives. After the bevel is done on the belts, you have to switch directions and hone on the leather belt free hand, because the guide holds the blade so the belt turns into the edge. I havent actually practiced this method but a handful of times, but I finally got an even and high polish bevel on my RADA Santoku that would whittle hair off the leather belt, and shaved arm hair right from the 9 micron Lee Valley belt.
 
On the package from Lee Valley, they state that you can use both sides of the leather belt.
The rough side for burr removal and the smooth side for more of a polish.
 
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