# Knife Sharpening With a Belt Sander (1" X 30")



## Workdog (Jan 10, 2007)

I&#8217;ve recently become interested in learning to better sharpen my filet knives, skinning knives, and other types of blades and tools around the house and garage. In the past, I&#8217;ve tried steels, stones, ceramic sticks, diamond infused sticks, grinders, all with less than satisfactory results. In doing some research, I&#8217;ve learned you should use a steel to only top off a blade that is already sharp; that stones and sticks can take a very long time (hours) to get the results you want, especially for very dull blades; and a grinding wheel (for lawn mower blades) can overheat a blade and reduce its hardness/strength.

[Knife sharpening purists should stop reading right now&#8230; ]

One technique that popped up over and over, giving good (and quick) results was a belt sander, believe it or not. Some folks opted to buy dedicated belt sanders such as the &#8220;Work Sharp&#8221; ($70), &#8220;Ken Onion Work Sharp&#8221; ($130-145), or &#8220;Abletotech Multi Systems Belt Sharpener&#8482; Products&#8221; ($134-$154) knife sharpening systems. Many people preferred a simpler and less expensive method, me included.

I decided on the Harbor Freight 1&#8221; X 30&#8221; belt sander from Chicago Machinery. These can be had on sale occasionally for as low as $35-$38&#8230; http://www.harborfreight.com/1-in-x-30-in-belt-sander-61728.html. 

Belts can be found at http://www.supergrit.com/ , http://www.theedgemasters.com/SharpeningSuppliesforSale.html or other belt supply houses online. For belts, some guys go real simple, such as a 400 grit belt and a leather stropping belt with an abrasive compound applied to the belt. I think an assortment of belts come in handy: 80 grit for heavy sanding on lawnmower blades; 400 grit for very dull knife blades, pruners or hatchets for example; 600-800 grit for dull thinner blades such as filet knives; a 1000 grit for fine polishing and touchups on knife blades; and a leather stropping belt with compound to take the curled over metal off after fine sanding and to polish the blade.

I found several good U-Tube videos that explain the sanding/sharpening process. In the first one, the guy goes simple with just one sanding belt and then the stropping belt... 



 
[url]http://www.theedgemasters.com/ This second video, found on the homepage of the Edgemasters website (half way down the page) uses multiple belts using course to fine belts and finishing with the leather stropping belt&#8230;

A couple things to note on these videos is:
1). Practice on cheap old blades before you move up to more expensive knives or your wives&#8217; kitchen cutlery.
2) Use very light pressure when you are putting the knife to the belt.
3) Heavy pressure on the sanding belt will cause you to overheat your blade, affecting the blade&#8217;s temper. The thinner tips of knives can be overheated if you leave it on a sanding belt too long also.
4) Practice on cheap old blades before you move up to more expensive knives&#8230;(very important) 
5) You might want to continue to use stones on your very very expensive knives.
6) With practice on the cheaper blades, you will find that you won&#8217;t need a guide to get the correct angle on your blades.
7) Practice on cheap old blades before you move up to more expensive knives. 
8) When sanding a blade, you want to envision imaginary lines along the blade&#8217;s edge perpendicular to the blade edge. You want the blade&#8217;s edge perpendicular to the motion of the belt. Therefore, as you move the blade along the sanding belt you will need to (typically) raise or lower the butt end so that the belt remains perpendicular to the blade edge as you approach the curved tip of the knife.
9) You want to sand towards the edge of the blade, i.e., if the sanding belt is rotating downward as you face the sander, you want the knife edge down too. If you sand into the blade edge you could lose control of the knife and have it hit you. You will see some videos online that do it bassackwards&#8230;DON&#8217;T DO IT! If you are stropping the blade with the belt rotating into the blade edge, you could also cut your stropping belt.
10) If you buy the Harbor Freight belt sander, there are a few quirks you must address: The lever to adjust the table top is plastic and will probably already be stripped--I used vice grips to tighten that lever and keep the table top flat&#8230;you will not need to angle the table top in normal operation; the left side plate is unnecessary and blocks access to the belts; the pivoting wheel to adjust the belt tension will likely be too tight to move--you will need to unloosen that wheel (the rearmost wheel on the sander) a little bit and put some oil on the pivot point; when you put the leather stropping belt on the sander, it will likely be real tight, keeping the motor from turning the belt--you can pull outwards on the belt a little while it is on the belt sander to loosen it up and it will work fine; do not leave a leather stropping belt on the sander when not in use--the belt will likely get sloppy loose.

Serrated blades: The most sensible way I seen to sharpen a serrated blade is the below video from SanDiego Cutlery. This guy colors in the serrations with a black sharpie, and using a dowel the same size as the serrations, wraps a 600 grit wetpaper around the dowel and sands each individual serration. The sharpie mark will let you know if you are sanding at the correct angle&#8230;



 Many videos on line show folks sharpening serrated blades by running em across V-positioned ceramic sticks. I even seen one video where the guy had his electric filet knife running, and slid his blades back and forth along the V-sticks. Especially with electric filet knife blades, doing this will file down the extra long tips of the serrations. A serrated bread knife has much less pronounced scallop tips than electric filet knives. Another way of sharpening serrated blades is with a special file, such as which you could purchase from Edgemasters. The following video shows how this is done&#8230;



 Regardless of which method you use to sharpen serrated knives, you only sharpen the serrated side! You would use the stropping belt on the other side. DO NOT use a belt sander (other than with stropping belt)on the flat side of a serrated blade!

Well, that&#8217;s it. Sharpening knives with a belt sander is a quick and easy way to get a very fine, hair cutting edge on your knives. I expect some purists will jump on this post and say that stones are the ONLY way to correctly sharpen knives. They are wrong! Some of the best knife makers use belt sanders to shape and sharpen their knives.


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## bcnulater (May 7, 2007)

You must put a beating on your knives if you need a belt sander to get a good edge.
Once a knife has a good edge it shouldn't take too much to resharpen.
The most important thing is not to let your edge get dull in the first place.


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## boatnut (Nov 22, 2006)

Thanks for the post, work dog. I've been using this method for several years with good results. Like you, I tried about everyway and found this works best for me. I'm no purist though


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## Workdog (Jan 10, 2007)

Thanks boatnut. I appreciate that.





bcnulater said:


> You must put a beating on your knives if you need a belt sander to get a good edge.
> Once a knife has a good edge it shouldn't take too much to resharpen.
> The most important thing is not to let your edge get dull in the first place.


You don't read well...you must be a purist.  You don't sharpen lawnmower blades with ceramic sticks. Also, I had knives from way back that were so dull I could draw them across my arm and they wouldn't cut. Now they shave arm hair. I also said, if you just want to touch up a blade, use a 1000 grit belt or just the stropping belt with compound.


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## capt j-rod (Feb 14, 2008)

Great post. I don't take high dollar blades to any machine. However, China's finest $8 knife is very capable of doing all of this. My knives are like shoes, different for every occasion. I don't shovel snow in dress shoes, and I don't wear snow boots to office meetings. These methods are what I use to get great results from knives that others throw away. 
For the touch ups on the good knives I use a lansky system and get good results.
For fish I bought an American Angler off of Craig at Erie Outfitters. It is a tank that has cut literally hundreds of walleye without failure!!! 100% made in USA too!


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## brent k (Nov 10, 2013)

Workdog. Good thread this good info here. Ill be using this. 

Capt j rod im gonna check into your filet knife im in the market for a good one.


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## brent k (Nov 10, 2013)

Ok i realize its an electric knife now ha ha.


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## CudaJohn (Aug 26, 2014)

bcnulater said:


> You must put a beating on your knives if you need a belt sander to get a good edge.
> Once a knife has a good edge it shouldn't take too much to resharpen.
> The most important thing is not to let your edge get dull in the first place.


I'll have to second that.

I bought a spyderco sharpmaker a few years ago. One of the best investments I've made. I mostly use it for my chef knives so when I do use it, it's for a quick tuneup. Letting a highly used blade go for too long is just begging for an accident to happen (that's from experience - 5 stitches on my index knuckle last year cutting red pepper, lol). Plus, the sharpener can be stored in a kitchen drawer and it's compact enough I can take it with me when needed. Just my opinion, but for those times I need a blade reprofiled, I'll take it to a local guy, Kevin Noon.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

CudaJohn said:


> I'll have to second that.
> 
> I bought a spyderco sharpmaker a few years ago. One of the best investments I've made. I mostly use it for my chef knives so when I do use it, it's for a quick tuneup. Letting a highly used blade go for too long is just begging for an accident to happen (that's from experience - 5 stitches on my index knuckle last year cutting red pepper, lol). Plus, the sharpener can be stored in a kitchen drawer and it's compact enough I can take it with me when needed. Just my opinion, but for those times I need a blade reprofiled, I'll take it to a local guy, Kevin Noon.


x2! A lot of people don't realize that, between the two, the dull knife is much more dangerous to use than the razor sharp one. Anytime you have to "force" a knife you're asking for trouble!


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## CudaJohn (Aug 26, 2014)

Not the first time I've done this with a dull knife. 24 hours later it was still bleeding so I tapped out and went to urgent care. The doctor was pleased I was there. Apparently treating kids with runny noses all day long gets old and my open wound was a breath of fresh air.

At any rate however you choose to sharpen belt, stone, etc., make sure you do it regularly.


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## Workdog (Jan 10, 2007)

Thanks J-rod and Brent!

For the others... Maybe I should have titled this post: "*Blade *Sharpening with a Belt Sander"? Seems all the critiques are coming from guys with high dollar pocket knives, even though I described other types of blades in the post.

I have used a Wusthoff for sharpening the kitchen knives (has ceramic sticks for fine and carbide bits for coarse sharpening. These are rated very highly...the number 6 sharpener in a recent survey. After doing a little research, and from personal experience, I would never recommend the carbide sharpeners. They take too much metal off, and produce an uneven finish. The belt sander blade finish, with a little practice, looks perfect.

Thanks everyone for having a look. Now, back to the grindstone..


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