Good evening all,

I'm new to everything straight razor but I decided to jump in. It's an interesting hobby, from restoring and sharpening to pre shave and shaving, and I'm very into it. I recently began restoration attempts on a few razors I picked up in a lot. I've had medium success at a few methods but I'm looking for input. I've read a few of the posts on here and didn't quite find what I was looking for. Perhaps I didn't look closely enough but here goes:

I am currently hand sanding blades to remove minor pitting, water marks, and rust. I am starting with an 80 grit and following the usual progression until about 500 then I jump since after buffing and using polish the scratches are not visible and I have obtained a mirror to my liking. My question is this: Have any of you attempted restoring a blade from a 1"x30" belt sander? If so, how has this worked for you? I have tried applying some greaseless I obtained from Eastwood and I could not get any of them to stick to my wheels. I tried a few different types of wheels with zero success. The best I got was a concentrated load on one area of the wheel. Mind you, my bench buffer is 6" at 3450 RPM and it's not variable. Could it be the compounds? Or is it my particular buffer? I didn't want to spend the money without an opinion so I continued on by hand sanding. In regards to the 1"x30" belt sander, I would be using a 80 grit and up progression and probably start hand sanding by 400. Mainly, I'm trying to reduce the amount of time I spend on 80/120 getting the pits and discolorations out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure I'll have numerous questions over the course of this trade.

I look forward to interacting with you all and hearing the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding your straight razor restoration projects. Thanks to all for the info that you have already posted, it has been a great help thus far.

-Booze