I actually just got my first belts in from lee valley. I have a Japanese wet stone set 240,1000,4000 and 8000 and can split hairs by this method. I have just started using the 1x30 harbor freight belt sander and while i can get hair popping sharpness I can't split hairs or anything.

I guess i just have a system for the stones. Form burr, remove burr by stropping, move to the next stone and repeat until final stop on green compound. its hard to find the new burr without first removing it for me on the sander.

with the finer microns(20-15-9) how many passes do you usually do? Maybe i am overdoing it.