I apologize for bump an old topic from the dead, just have a few interesting observations from personal experience, maybe someone will need this information in the future.
If you get a good one, it will work well enough for sharpening swords. But at that price point, the quality control is not great and I know a couple of people who bought those 1x30 sanders where the pulleys were not properly positioned and the belts couldn't be tightened properly. The belts were so loose that control over the edge angle is next to impossible. I got lucky with mine in that the belts are super tight. With high quality 3M Trizact belts
https://mechanicguides.com/best-belt-grinders/ I can create very sharp edges on my blades with very good control over the edge angle.
But for large scale grinding when creating sword blades through stock removal, the belts are too small and the motor is under-powered, as fallen and brotherbanzai stated. Unless of course.On YouTube there are a lot of interesting videos on this topic, recently revised an interesting video, look, too, I hope this helps you.I have also using a Dayton 6" wide bench sander for about 15 years & it kicks ass.
I remove the guard on top & use the radius on top for shaping curves & It works excellent.
Although You need to hang on to the part tightly, just like You would when polishing parts
on a wheel
