What Grits to Use???

safetyman

safetyman

Joined
Sep 8, 2008
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Hello everyone! I just bought a brand new Delta SA180 for $75 'cause I decided I'd try my hand at sharpening with belts instead of stones.

It seems the belt that comes with the sander is very coarse at 100 grit. Unless I want to re-profile or make some drastic changes to blade geometry, I can't see me using this belt in the future. That leads me to my question...what type of belts in what grits should I get to do a decent sharpening job on my blades? I have searched the forums looking for some information and saw this thread

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=589533

Lee Valley looks to be the place to order from and I know I want to get a leather stropping belt also but I'm kinda in the blue about what belts to buy. They have Zirconia belts and Aluminum Oxide belts. The Zirconia belts are twice the price of the Aluminum Oxide belts; although we're talking prices in the range of $2-4, is the price difference worth the difference in performance? I really don't want to waste my money buying belts of the wrong type and grit. Can someobody please help me??? :confused:
 
Get the zirconia. You should not need coarser than 400 grit.
Bill
 
I tried my first sharpening with 120 I think, then moved up to 220 and then 300-something. Then I went to the Sharpmaker.

Being brand new at this, I used a protractor to set the table at about 105 degrees (15 degrees). Then, using some rare earth magnets, I stuck a short 6" square to the table, in front and a little to one side of the belt. Using that to eyeball off of, I sharpened a large Kabar USArmy. It came out acceptably nice. Watch it at the tip!!!!!! Don;t slow down there, whatever you do.

I also did my EKA H8 on the Delta 180, using the above grits. It was on this knife that I learned to be careful around the tip. I squared it off a mite. I'll save the fixing for another day (this was a month ago :) )

I got some belts from knifesupply but the best selection was at woodworker's supply www.woodworker.com. I also got a couple of ceramic belts 80 and 100, I think. They're nice.
 
Pops Knife supply is a good place as well. I use 400-600 grit belts although even a 120 works pretty well when it gets really worn down.
 
I use 600, 800, and 1000 X weight belts from trugrit.com Klingspor CS310, CS308. I have some 120 and 220 on hand as well.
 
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