Consensus - Needed belt brand and grits for G1015

[Walt-]

Hello Folks -

What brand belts and grits are needed for blade grinding / finishing using a G1015. Thanks for your input.

[Ray Rogers]

For every person who answers this question you will get a different answer. A great deal depends on how you make your knives, how you like to finish them, the number of knives you make at one time, and probably a bunch of factors I can't even begin to predict. If you use the Search function you should find a hundred opinions on this same question. In short, over the next year or so you'll need to buy every different kind of belt that has any appeal to you and try it to see how it works for you. Then, in a few years, you'll need to do it again because how you work will change. That's why my shop has hundreds of belts on the wall.

All that being as it may be this is what I use to do my basic grinding and finish work:

3M 967F 60 grit I use as many of these as all the other belts combined

Norton R823 120X 220X

Hermes 400JF

All belts from Tru-Grit ...

[Kostoglotov]

Sorry I don't think there's a consensus (Ask 10 knifemakers a question and you'll get 11 diffeent answers)


Best advice is try different belts to see what works for you


Below is my $0.02 and worth what you paid

If you use alot of pressure, ceramics are worth while, otherwise they are a waste of $

for hogging material off - 50 to 80 grit seems to be the standard

3M Gators aren't good for hogging but do a good job refining the grind

Perfect world Ceramic will out last Zirc which will out last AO

Most of the major vendors make good belts (3M, Norton, Klingspor, Hermes). Sometimes cheap belts are cheap for a reason and sometimes they are just inexpensive (Pop's bargain Zirc's fit this category IMO)


The quest for the ultimate belt will never end

[WynnKnives]

x3 ^^^ lol, Personally I use all ceramic up to 320 ish then go to norax engineered, along with hand sanding between. Like everyone else said, just start buying a bunch of types and find out what you as a maker likes. Same as the style of your knives, there may be a lot of people that like a certain thing, but if you don't like it what's the point, use and make what you like, because ultimately I think that's why we all do this. I don't mean to sound selfish, but that's why we are doing this, because we enjoy it, I work 50 hours a week for a company I don't like to take care of my family, (excuse the language) but I'll be ####ed if I do something in the knifemaking realm that I don't like :P

[Icho]

I just ground my first blade with my home made 2x72 grinder. I was in the same boat as you just a few weeks ago and here's what I decided on. I got 3 of each just to get me started of ceramic 36, ceramic 60, 120, 240, 320, 400 and 1 fine scotchbrite belt then ordered some other grits that showed up last week. My first blade with this grinder is a larger D2 chef knife and I quickly realized that I wished I had something between the 60 and 120. I think it is because of the type of steel I was grinding.
On Monday I will be picking up an order of supplies. When I placed the order I decided to throw in one 1200 grit just to see if it does anything for me. So I can see what everyone else is saying about there not being the perfect belts and what Ray said about hundreds in his shop.... I feel it coming. Lol
Like I said I'm new but I hope it helps.

[BigCountry86]

For all my heavy belts I use Norton blaze. They cut fast and clean and last a long time. I use 60 and 80 grit to do my initial grind.
The rest of my belts are 3m trizact cf. Grits I use are a160 a100 a65 a45 a30 a16 and a6. I only go to an a45 if I want a brushed finish.

[Fulmaduro]

When I started I read a posted tip by Ed Caffrey about the economy belts Pop's sells in his economy belt section. He says he was really impressed by them and usually didn't try economy belts but did so on a recommendation.

The AZ-X 36 and 60 grit zirconia/ AO combination belts at $2.35 and $2.10 each. I have had nothing but excellent results from these belts and from Pop's. Highly recommended for hogging out blades and initial bevels.

I almost exclusively use 3M Cubitron in the other grits, and love the Scotch-Brite belts for cleaning off forging scale and temper discoloration post temper. Good luck.

Tony Z