ordawg,

The belts you want depend on what you want to do with the sander. Sharpen or full convex? With my Zilla, NMFBM etc.. those were both had the primary grind worked on with 40 grit belts, I would never use a 40 grit belt on an edge however. After that I put a satin finish back on them going up in grits up to loaded cork belts.

How I get scary sharp from a dull blade or a unconvexed blade is start with a 320 grit belt, develop a burr and keep going up in grits deburing and removing the previous grits scratches. I bring it up to 15 micron before I go to a loaded belt. I generally use a very worn cork belt with my 1x30 as the leather has far too much flop, but I load up the cork belt with compound and power strop it. Once I get my 1x42, I'll go back to use leather so I can have adjustable tension.

No need for paper wheels, I still fail to see how sharpening a convex edge on those wheels will not eventually cause a v edge... but some people say it does. Either way, I can get knives sharper on my sander than the results people get on their paper wheels.