What's the difference between VSM belts

S

Storm W

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Feb 19, 2019
Messages
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I was just looking at pops website. I only remember one type of VSM ceramic belts in the past. Now they have YK870, YK760 and YK885Y. The last one it says breaks down under less pressure but its pretty expensive for a VSM belt. Anyone know the difference between these and is the YK885Y belt worth it? That's more than a Blaze and those do work better but I'm still not sure they are worth it.
 
I've also been using the 885s and quite like them. I get them from tru grit where they're significantly cheaper than blaze belts.
 
I've been using Pop's economy belts in 36 and 60 grit since I bought my KMG in 2013 I also buy my Scotch~Brite belts from Pop's too... at 17.00 a piece for he is the Cheapest place I have seen for the Scotch-Brite ~ I tried Blaze 60 grit once because of all their Hype "ONCE" just to see what I was missing and "Honestly" I wasn't missing much at all.....I was disappointed in how much Hype they get and how long the 60 Grit lasted and performed after giving them a try ~ the economy 60 Grit from Pop's is way better for the price of 2.60 compared to Blaze at 10.00 ~ in my own opinion blue economy from Pop's was just as good ~ I buy all my other grit now from Home Depot they have butted joints and carry a number of different grits.....these are Aluminum Oxide belts ~ they have grits in 40 60 80 100 120 180 240 400 some are as expensive as 1.70 something a piece ~ that's 17.00 for 10 and they ship free to the store or your home orders over $50 ~ now that is some economy savings there ~ this is being shared for those who do not have as much money as some other people ~ Home Depot is the way to go ~ Belts are a big expense ~ Only downside to homedepot is that they do not carry the finer grits "YET" ~ I've always liked using Pop's.....although the shipping always gets everyone and that is Pop's Included he has to pay so he has to pass it on to his customers ~ I was going to make a $200.00 order two weeks ago but didn't because the shipping brought it up to $270.00 couldn't afford the $70.00 at the time ~

Actually they have belts of 10 even as low as $14.93 this is their 180 grit ~ their belts they carry are made by "Powertec" ~ Here is a link to these Belts

https://www.homedepot.com/s/Powertec%20Abrassives%202X72?NCNI-5
 
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The 60 grit 885 is my favorite belt. It loses 30% relatively quickly, then stays at 70% for a very long time. Much longer than the blaze. On mid to high alloy steels, that is my go to belt post heat treat. Low belt speed, and medium pressure. I have a local supplier, so no shipping costs on them for me.
 
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I find the newer Red Heat belts, a bit more aggressive than the VSM or blaze, and they work better on higher alloy steels than the blaze. I just bought 20 of them to try out on this batch of knives. Norax belts work quite well on high alloy steels too. I never liked them on Simple steels, but they are great on z-wear, M4, z-max etc.
 
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The Xk870x is a popular mid price range belt. It was the first ceramic belt I bought. Grinding a .1" chef knife post HT I go through 3 of them at 60 grit.
Just ordered a bunch of new ceramics to try out, that I found at good price: pink (!) Norton R976P, TAF JG9TOP and Deerfos PS999 all meant for lite to medium pressure.
 
Willie71 said:
I find the newer Red Heat belts, a bit more aggressive than the VSM or blaze, and they work better on higher alloy steels than the blaze. I just bought 20 of them to try out on this batch of knives. Norax belts work quite well on high alloy steels too. I never liked them on Simple steels, but they are great on z-wear, M4, z-max etc.
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What’s the # on the Red heat belts, 983, 981? Other? Never heard of them.

Hoss
 
I may be in the minority, but I actually have found the cheaper VSMs to last longer for me. I didn't do any super scientific testing or anything, but I felt like I just stripped the grit off of the more expensive ones.
 
HSC /// said:
What’s good on z wear....? I mean besides 3m diamond :D
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I use mostly the vsm885 in 60 grit post heat treat. They lose their initial sharpness quickly, but like I said, they stay at 70% a long time. Kevin Cox told me about them, and he uses a lot of z-wear. If the grinder is running fast enough to throw sparks, the belts will glaze.

I initially bought two or three of the red heats to try. My first impressions were good. I just bought 10 more of the 36, and 10 of the 60s to try out. I’ll report back after I go through a few.

At 120 grit, I like the blaze a bit better than the VSM, but they aren’t a huge difference. I like norax x200, x100, and x65, then I go to scotchbrite. I didn’t like the 36grit vsm885 though. I’m going to try them one more time, slowed down. I used to run 36 grit belts fast, but that doesn’t work so great with z-wear.
 
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Belts are very user and steel dependent, I find. Different pressure, technique, and alloys react differently. Find what works for you, and use it.
 
I always used the cheapest VSM that pops carried and just noticed that there were different ones. Blaze is my favorite belts but its really hard to beat the VSM for the money. They are quality enough to track well and not do anything to weird but no matter how good a belt breaks down its really hard to beat just changing your belts twice as often.
 
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