new abrasives

R

ripi

Joined
Apr 15, 2001
Messages
35
hi all im looking for new belt/abrasives that have come out in the last few years to ask my suppliers about am currently using klingspore ceramic in 40 grit for all rough grinding with ali oxide j weight belts for the finishing work .i hear about norton hoggers and cubitron belts just need some info on what these are so i can direct my supplier to find some they are a great supplier just dont have much idea what knife makers need
cheers john
ps i live in new zealand so american suppliers are out
 
Trugrit.com has a good list of belt descriptions with the actual model numbers of all the major belts we use. I know you can't use american suppliers, but the information should still be useful.

It is here.

-Allin
 
perhaps i should have asked which abrasives people recomend
cheers john :)
 
I use a 40 grit #977 3-M orange belt for hogging, and initial profile grinding, followed by hermes RB346 J weight, or RB 406 Jflex aluminum oxide belts in 120, 320, and 600. I also use the 15 micron 3-M belts at times during finishing.
All the above are in 2"X72" size.
I have also used the yellow 967 3-M in 50 grit for hogging, etc., with very good results.
You're best off buying from an abrasive supplier that's familiar with knifemaking needs, or you'll get overlap joints on the belts, old stuff with weak joint welds, which can be very exiting when they blow on your machine, etc. Not good.
 
You have mentioned a topic on which I'm fairly opinionated. :D I too use the yellow 967s, 60 grit, and think they're great. I'm still looking for the ideal ceramic 220 belt. I've been using Norton R984 which lasts a very long time but has too stiff a backing for my all around use. The jury's still out on that one. After 220 I use Norton Norax X30 (about 400 grit), 3M Trizact A30 (600), and often Norax X22 (800).

The 60 and 220 ceramic belts are great because the grit will fracture and remain sharp longer than A/O or other common abrasives. It's hard to kill the 967s, I'm not kidding. They run forever.

The Norax and Trizact are "structured" abrasives, which just means that the grain size is very exact and is applied to the belt in a uniform pattern. This results in a more even finish for each grit which means the next grit up is easier to complete. If that makes any sense...

An added benefit (to me) of the Norax belts is that the grit can be refreshed several times by breaking down the surface with a sharp edged tool - like scrap steel. I've been able to make these belts cut fresh for an amazingly long time simply by "scraping" off the surface grit to expose new abrasive. To give an example how this saves me money, I used to use two A/O 400 belts per blade. But I can perform the 400 finish on as many as three similar blades with a single Norax belt. The A/O cost per blade was about $5; the Norax cost per blade is about $2.20 or less. (This example is for one grit only, 400.) You can see I'm sold on Norton Norax. :D

But I'm still working to get the ideal combination of belts; not quite there. I'm certain that all of my steel finish work is going to be done with Norax from now on. But I'm coming to the conclusion that a fresh flexible-backed A/O belt works better for most handle materials. So next I'm looking for the ideal belt for handles...
 
I like the ceramic 3M belts:963, 977 and the 707 J wt belts a lot up to around 120 grit. Overlapping those are the 3M Trizact CF structured abrasives (Gators) from 80 grit (A-300) to 120 (A-160) to 180 (A100) to 320? (A45). These CFs are practically indestructable.
Regular Trizacts and Norton Norzons go up to about 5 Micron above these.
 
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