anyone use belt sander for sharpening

[Tnscooter63]

a while back someone posted this video here

I liked it so thought would try it. I got the 1" x 30" sander on ebay and have ordered several belts. Cant wait to tear into an old piece of knife to see if I can bring back to life.

[MacGyver]

Just make sure you have several knives that you care nothing about to start with. It's definitely and art, and while capable of developing an amazing edge, can screw up a good blade in a second if you aren't careful.

[Tnscooter63]

Just make sure you have several knives that you care nothing about to start with. It's definitely and art, and while capable of developing an amazing edge, can screw up a good blade in a second if you aren't careful.

kinda figured, I got the belts today and first thing put the leather with green compound on and what a difference on my recon 1, thought it might be tough with the tanto blade but was no biggie and it brought it back to new if not better. I have a home made big ol thick machete that was given to me and put it across 4 or 5 belts and has a great edge so far, especially since I started out with an almost round edge and only took a few minutes. Will definately take some getting used to but I do like the idea of a easily aquired wicked edge.

[willis68]

Lawnmower blades, yes, knives, hell no

[laktrash]

I was thinking about trying paper wheels on my grinder. I'm not really handy and looked at different sharpeners. some of the knife people think is not a bad way to go.

[LazyAce]

My grandfather and my dad both did saw sharpening and now I do some. I will use a belt sander on everyday utility knives but I still like a oilstone to get a smooth edge on my pocket knife. If you do use a belt sander put the edge of the knife blade up when sharpening, this way will make a better edge on the blade. You need to practice a bunch on old knives first or use a worn out belt so you don`t take off as much when sharpening. It can be done but not the prefered method.

[VERO1]

I know there is an older couple using a belt sander at gunshows around here to do sharpening. They clamp the blades in a jig made from vise grips to set the angle. I let them do my cheapie knock around knife and it came out well. Not sure I would trust it on a high dollar blade though.

[Tnscooter63]

My grandfather and my dad both did saw sharpening and now I do some. I will use a belt sander on everyday utility knives but I still like a oilstone to get a smooth edge on my pocket knife. If you do use a belt sander put the edge of the knife blade up when sharpening, this way will make a better edge on the blade. You need to practice a bunch on old knives first or use a worn out belt so you don`t take off as much when sharpening. It can be done but not the prefered method.

You are the first person I have seen to say put the cutting edge up, would seem kind of dangerous, maybe with practice I guess. I really dont have any real expensive blades like alot of you here and dont have the time to get an edge on all my blades with a stone, I am the original tool guy in my world and figured would just be something else to play with and hopefully get a wicked edge on alot of old knives that havent been sharp in a long time.

[Tnscooter63]

I know there is an older couple using a belt sander at gunshows around here to do sharpening. They clamp the blades in a jig made from vise grips to set the angle. I let them do my cheapie knock around knife and it came out well. Not sure I would trust it on a high dollar blade though.

pretty much figure if I cant do it with my hands its not worth doing.

[East_TN_Patriot]

As a fellow who dabbled in knife making for a while under the instruction of a semi-retired career knife maker, I offer my 2 cents worth. When we made knives, we would use belt grinders for the rough edge and then hone it down using a specially made buffing wheel and then a ceramic sharpening rod. This gave us a razor edge. The only time you should need to use anything as aggressive as a belt sander to sharpen is when your blade is completely trashed. The goal of keeping a knife sharp is to MAINTAIN the cutting edge using a ceramic rod or a strop on a regular basis (think about a chef who hits the blade on a steel almost every time he gets ready to use it or a barber who runs the straight razor over a strop before each shave). This keeps the edge from dulling and is usually all you need for keeping an excellent edge on your knife under normal conditions. You should only need to hit your knife on a stone very rarely. Even when the blade is totally trashed, my teacher recommended the use of a metal cutting file and then progressively finer stones for general sharpening.

If you do feel the need to use the sander, I will give a couple of serious warnings. First, it is very easy to screw up a perfectly good blade. I worked on a sheath for a guy who paid several hundred dollars on a knife and thought it would be a good idea to grind it on a bench grinder. He screwed the blade up really badly and asked the knife maker to regrind it for him. Second, you need to keep a container of water next to the grinder and dip the blade frequently. It is easy to get the blade too hot and ruin the heat treating, and thus the blade. Grind a bit, then dip, grind some more, then dip.

For those needing a good sharpening setup, I use a Smith's diamond stone set with a coarse and a fine side, a ceramic sharpening rod (aka croc stick), and a strop. Since I have started using the croc stick on a regular basis, I almost never pull out the diamond stone.

[Tnscooter63]

I appreciate the experience given here but that and the opinions had me almost wishing I had saved the money for the new patriarch reel I have been wanting atleast until I got finished yesterday. The edges came out better than I expected and it only took about an hour an a half to do 6 blades and that included a CS machete and 3 of the blades had pretty good nics out of them. I took the advice and kept the water handy but never really needed it except for a double edge point I was a bit weary of messin up which was the one that took the longest, for an old german bayonet it was very light and some hard metal that had the blade messed up from before I bought it with the edge to far over, wavy and getting the double point the way I liked it took some patience. The amount of time I saved on these was worth the expense and am not even half done and the edges are well worth it. Thanks for all the comments.