Thread: what is your preffered 72*2" belt type for razors

Don't buy aluminium, zirkonium or silicon belts for roughing out blades. They wear very fast.
Buy ceramic belts. They're more expensive, but last much longer and stay sharp longer.

As an aside: when you are profiling sides or making notches: use old belts, and use new belts only for hollow grinding or tapering the tang.when the surface contact area is very small, the old belts will be good enough, and if you'd use new belts, you'd just scrape off the abrasive, ruining it very fast.
If you use old and new belts sensibly, they'll last a long time.

Post HT you can start at 80 for hollowing.
Again, use ceramics as high as you can get them. From 400 and up, either aluminium or tizact is good.
Going higher than 800 is pointless. From 800 you can just use a buffer with chromium oxide. Grinding higher will only cost you belts without adding anything of value.