Sharpening with a Belt Grinder

I came to this razor hobby from my knife hobby. Not knowing any better I’ve been using a belt grinder to sharpen dull razors, and it seems to work well for me. The time commitment is certainly less than that required for a manual sharpening.

I use care not to heat the blade and destroy the temper. Also, I sharpen so the belt runs from the spine of the blade towards the edge, as is done in stropping. That way the edge will not catch on the belt as it would if I let the belt run towards the sharp edge. It goes without saying that complete attention is required, as razor + power tool is a potentially dangerous combination. I usually use a supported section of the belt, to avoid convexing the edge.

If there are large nicks in the blade I take them out with a 20 micron belt. This process is pretty sure to leave a wire edge on the blade, so I break that off with slicing through some cardboard.

Then I go down to a 9 micron belt. If there were no big nicks to grind down I can just start with the 9 micron. I use a light hand here to avoid the wire edge. If one develops I break it off with the cardboard. Next I use a leather belt on the grinder with green chrome compound. After that the razor is ready for a light honing on the Swaty and a shave.

There was no magic to the abrasive grits I’m using. They were what I had and they work. Some finer grit belts may be available if someone should desire an even finer edge.

Well, far be it for me to critisize someones honing technique as I always say everyone shoud experiment and find the system that best works for them but in this case let me just say I don't think you'll find too many guys who would sharpen a straight on a belt grinder. However, if it works for you keep it up.

Yeah ... It's a lonely path I walk ...


;)

What size leather belt do you use and where did you buy it?
What speed does your grinder run at?

Thanks in advance,

A friend who has been using a straight for years sharpens his on his Tormek grinder.

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Originally Posted by randydance062449

What size leather belt do you use and where did you buy it?
What speed does your grinder run at?

Thanks in advance,

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Ayaah ... making me do research at this time of night!

The leather belt is a Surgi-Sharp 1"x42". I bought it off the net somewhere, but I forgot where. Maybe Lee Valley? A Google search should turn up vendors.

Belt speed is 3000 SFPM.

Best regards to most... and happy trails. Time to migrate. I may start something on my own site.

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Originally Posted by urleebird

Is your grinder variable speed? I use a 2 x 72 grinder for most of my fixes. I also run the belt into the edge. I like a worn 400 blue super flex a little faster than a brisk walk, myself. Once it's close, then I go to the hones...

Here is a link I posted an eon ago explaining it somewhat. It's the one on the bottom left.

http://www.billysblades.com/workingscales.htm

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Bill,

It sounds like you have a nice setup, as I would expect from a quality knifemaker. I just have an inexpensive single-speed 1x42. I think it ran about $150.

I wondered about you when you commented about passing up that big meatcutter I bought with the uneven edge, since I knew how easy it was to fix up. It's obvious from your video that fixing such problems in a minute or two is no mystery to you either.

You're brave to run the belt into the edge. I'll leave that for pros like you. It's certainly something not to do with a leather belt. Not only do I worry about chipping, but also the belt catching the blade and launching it somewhere. I bet it's easier to avoid the wire edges your way though.

Have you tried a leather belt? It may speed up the honing process for you. You can use them plain or with your choice of abrasive compounds. I found an outlet for the leather belts (and a picture) here.

The microabrasive belts are worth looking into too. They may have some advantages over a worn belt of larger grit size. There's an interesting table comparing grits here . According to the table, my 20 micron is about comparable to a soft arkansas or (guessing at the wear) your worn 400 grit, the 9 micron is about like a hard arkansas, and the leather belt with chrome rouge I use comes in at about 3 microns. You can get the chrome polishing compound down to 0.5 microns though.

Best regards to most... and happy trails. Time to migrate. I may start something on my own site.

Thank you for the link to the leather sharpening belt.
I just happen to have a 1x42! I really want this to reduce the amount of time I spend removing nicks from blades.

Thanks again,

You guys are scarin' me......I'm stickin' to hand honing......ummmmmmm maybe.....hahahahaha.

Lynn

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Originally Posted by randydance062449

Thank you for the link to the leather sharpening belt.
I just happen to have a 1x42! I really want this to reduce the amount of time I spend removing nicks from blades.

Thanks again,

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You're very welcome!

I think you'll love what the leather belt does for you. Here's another link to the kind Bill has. The leather belts are comparable to our hand strops, and will do the same kind of thing, either plain or pasted. They're just much faster.

I think if you want to take out anything other than tiny nicks you will probably want to go up to one of the fine grit belts. I see Lee Valley is offering a 15 micron, which should do the trick. I looked around and can't find where I got my 9 micron but I know they're out there somewhere. If I were just tooling up I might try to find an even finer one, maybe 5 or 6 micron.

Please be very careful of safety. Many knifemakers bear scars where their buffers or grinders caught a blade and made it into a projectile. This often happens when holding the blade with edge leading. Bill is a pro. Not only does he really know what he's doing, but he's also using an expensive variable speed grinder, which he says he uses at a "fast walk." That's different than the mandatory 3000 SFPM we'll get out of our cheap grinders. At 3000 SFPM the razor will be torn out of your hand and solidly embedded in your leg before the nerve impulse telling you it left your hand has made it to your elbow. That's why I grind with the edge trailing. I think grinding with the edge trailing is not as efficient, because you have to deal with those "wire edges." However, the extra safety is worth it to me.