Finishing belts

A

aelgin

Well-Known Member
So far I've done a lot of hand sanding to finish my knives, and it looks good, but it takes a lot of time and patience. My question is to those that do a satin machine finish, what do you prefer to use and why? Cork, Felt, Scotchbrite, norax?

I have some limitations on my sander where the Scotchbrite is too thick to clear my tool rest, so I'm looking at other options. If that's the best approach I could look into modifying my tool rest.

All opinions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron
 
i've had the best results with gator belts for machine finish. I usually take it up to the equivilent or 400 or 600. But recently I've been doing that same process and then hand sanding at 400 grit. It's really easy to get the scratches out like that and you don't have to go up through several different grits when hand sanding.
 
I have mainly done hand rubbed finishes but have recently started to dabble with belt finish. This video by Ian Hall helped me out alot especially with belt progressions.
On the last one I finished I did a 400 grit cork belt finish. When I got to 320 grit belt I did some hand sanding after that to make sure everything was true then hit it with the 320 again and finished with the cork belt. So far I like it. Ian does a good job explaining it in the video.
https://youtu.be/LhCmLDzC2ao
 
Thanks for the input guys. I have been running up to 400 grit on the belt sander before switching to hand, but maybe I need to spend a little more time on it at the higher grits or try a better belt. I haven't tried gator belts but their sheets are great for hand sanding. The video had a lot of good information if I find some 1x42 cork belts I may have to pick one up on my next order.

Thanks
Aaron
 
Gator sandpaper and gator belts are different. Gator is a nickname for a type of trizact belt. Excellent finishing belt that if taken care of will last a very long time
 
aelgin said:
So far I've done a lot of hand sanding to finish my knives, and it looks good, but it takes a lot of time and patience. My question is to those that do a satin machine finish, what do you prefer to use and why? Cork, Felt, Scotchbrite, norax?

I have some limitations on my sander where the Scotchbrite is too thick to clear my tool rest, so I'm looking at other options. If that's the best approach I could look into modifying my tool rest.
All opinions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron
Click to expand...

there are other manufacturers who make belts similar to scotchbright, some may be thinner. IMHO, the key once you go finer than 120grit is turn the speed down. a 220 belt at full speed will probably last about a minute. get your speed down around 500FPM and keep the blade and belt wet and you belt should last several small blades.
 
I keep reading where guys will do finishing work with J flex belts. All I ever manage to do is have the splice load up and actually put dings and trenches in my blade. With a brand new belt the first few passes look beautiful, then the splice seems to load up really quickly. As soon as I feel a splice bump it has usually trashed the finish.
 
Scott,
This may be part of my problem. I have a single speed direct drive grinder, and it does seem like i'm going too fast for finishing work. I may have to look at hooking up a VFD on the motor.



-Aaron
 
John Wilson said:
I keep reading where guys will do finishing work with J flex belts. All I ever manage to do is have the splice load up and actually put dings and trenches in my blade. With a brand new belt the first few passes look beautiful, then the splice seems to load up really quickly. As soon as I feel a splice bump it has usually trashed the finish.
Click to expand...


John,
I've been using J flex belts to get my plunge lines even and symmetrical, and they work pretty good for that, but I agree, when I run any j-flex, you really feel the splice come across the blade. Which brought me back to the hand sanding to make it look finished in the end.

-Aaron
 
aelgin said:
John,
I've been using J flex belts to get my plunge lines even and symmetrical, and they work pretty good for that, but I agree, when I run any j-flex, you really feel the splice come across the blade. Which brought me back to the hand sanding to make it look finished in the end.

-Aaron
Click to expand...

I'm right there with you. In fact, I switch to trizacts at 220 for this very reason and then I hand sand. The trizacts cut so slowly that as soon as everything is flat I go straight to hand sanding, but boy do they do a great job of really flattening out a bevel grind. I wish they didn't trap grit and impart their own scratches that I have to hand sand out.
 
John,
I tried out some trizacts for the first time. You were right on the money. They cut nice and smooth, and cleaned up the marks left by my j-flex. I switched over at 400 this time around, but I think i'll buy some coarser ones next time i have order. Thanks for the advise.

-Aaron
 
Aaron, Trizacts were a lifesaver for me. I was beyond frustrated, and when my mentor suggested the trizacts I was at the point where I would have tried anything. The difference was amazing. After fighting splices and chasing neverending unevenness, using a trizact felt like laying the blade on a nice piece of indoor/outdoor carpet. Is it possible for a belt to feel luxurious? ha!

And the icing on the cake is that these belts last a long, long time. I've never really worn one out. I have tossed a few because I ate away the edges while evening up plunges. But I can't say that I ever wore out a belt across its surface, not in the way other belts do where the grit gets scraped off. I have some of the original Trizacts I bought. Do they cut slower than a brand new one? I guess so... but Trizacts cut slow anyway. It's hard to tell.

I grind post-heat treat. I now take a blade to its finished dimensions on a 120grit ceramic. Then I go to 220grit Trizact to remove scratches and even up the plunges. Then I go to 400 Trizact to remove the 220 scratches. Honestly, I'm not even sure the 400grit is necessary because when I go to hand sand there are always some tiny 220 scratches that didn't come out and 220 or 320 is where I begin hand sanding. The Trizacts just don't cut fast enough, or maybe because on a flat grind there is so much flat surface area on the belt that it would simply take forever. At any rate, I can make the same progress hand sanding at this point and I can focus on trouble areas without worrying about the knife slipping on the grinder and causing me extra work inadvertently.

I'll be the first to admit that I stink at finishing on a grinder. I use hand sanding as a crutch because I'm better at it. But in the end, I can't get the finish on a grinder than I can hand sanding, and so I hand sand.
 
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