Recommendation? Which 2" x 72" belts for knife making?

[REK Knives]

I think from your YouTube channel that you like to use coolant. Do you always use coolant with them? And what type of grinder is that. It is nice that it has a large sideplate and a water trough (or so it looks like that). And just curious, do you cut the blanks out yourself? How are those cut out?

Yeah I use coolant... I installed the trough myself haha so it's my own mod. No I have my blanks laser or waterjet cut.

 

[Blankblank]

Thanks I've heard about Red Label belts, will look into them

Great Info

I think you mean klingspor .com. Is there a certain 3M AO?

Grinder is on the way. Went with Reeder So, assume you order VSM from Zoro? Curious what made you go with VSM. Have you also tried others like Norton Blaze, Red Lable, Klingspor, etc.?

The steel you use really makes a difference on the best belt choice ime.

Even then its still subjective of course.

That said doing a lot of wear resistant stuff, i found norton blaze, and vsm are the main two that are able to cut them well enough, and actually last a decent ammount of time. For 36 grit, ive moved to the vsm actirox, they plowed through 15v like it was butter, and after that i was a convert to those. I used to mostly use blaze, but after trying more vsms i find their ceramics (there are two or 3 lines from them that are pretty decent) get the same performance on these steel for less money.

I've tried red label, shredders, combat abrasives, and those just didn't do well for what I'm doing. That said. If you're only doing stuff in 1084, and 52100. They are probably more than good enough.

Also i tried a few different cubitron belts. They were all fairly disappointing. Especially when you factor in that they cost more than norton blaze, and they didnt last as long, or the same ammount of time as the blaze (depending on the belt).

Really the best advice is, everytime you make an order add a couple belts you haven't tried before to your cart. And i advise against making a giant order of one brand of belts until you have tried quite a few and know what you actually need, and like.

 

[Blankblank]

Actirox are the best 36 grit belt I've used... The other week I rough ground 15 of these from full thickness blanks to what you see here - all with one actirox belt. Keep in mind they are fully hardened magnacut (64hrc) I will say I do rough grind under coolant though which allows me to use higher speeds and more pressure without any issues.
View attachment 2260200

Same. Blew everything else out of the water. Not even exaggerating. I was surprised. Definitely the belt to use if you're doing anything like magnacut and up on wear resistance.

Haven't used them for low alloy stuff yet. But they probably just laugh off grinding 52100, or 26c3.

Edit: yeah the coolant thing is relivant. I'm also wet grinding when using them.

 

[RHINOKNIVES]

Glad I asked this question here. Some great insight. I'm always learning here . Thanks for not making me feel stupid for not knowing LOL. I had near heard of VSM before.

VSM are my preferred Ceramic belts, another issue I don’t believe anyone has mentioned is, I would grind after Heat treatment, that way, when you’re done grinding & using Scotchbrite etc. You are done & don’t having to go back to clean anything up. I just breat the intial bevel for the edge before sending them out for HT. I use Paul Bos at Buck knives because I mostly use Stainless & they were one of the first in the custom knife HT industry. Buy yourself a Quality Respirator, like 3/m. I developed Asthma after about 20 years of knife making & while I can’t prove it was the steel, Wood, syntheic dust. I’m sure it didn’t help any! I had to stop knife making. Good Luck & have fun!

 

[Natlek]

Too many grains per square inch , we can't use them properly and ve glaze them .On my surface grinder they last forever . I don't understand why they don't make them for us who work with our hands. Half a grain on square inch of that and we are on the horse............I think

This is what I am talking about .This bevels / M2 HSS steel / are grinded on 40 grit ceramic belt on 32 m/s. No hand sanding after that . That belt is used before this one on at least 10 - 15 blade , hardened steel .Look at that finish it is like 400 grit . Klingspor belts fracture fine in my shop , but Klingspor did not mention that as they fracture they change grits size . I Believe that the reason I can still grind bevels with that belt / on high belt speed / is that when new that belt have less grain on square inch then 100 grit ceramic belt and when fracture I have 400 grit ceramic belts with much less grain on square inch then 100 grit ceramic belt .If I explain right .......
It is OUT of question that i can do this with 100 grit ceramic belt even on 1/4 belt speed

click on pictures to see bigger picture......