So, I just finished spending the day practicing my belt sanding skills, and I'm feeling a little better with my skills.

I started off with reprofiling and sharpening a Cold Steel machete, and a couple cheap blades. I started them on a 150 grit, and went up to 220, then 320, to a 500 grit, 1000 grit, and finally onto the leather with the green honing compound. They came out decent, and got me into the groove of how to how to hold the blade to the belt.

After spending a couple hours practicing on these and an old lawnmower blade, I decided to take a risk.... and sharpen my Cold Steel Magnum Tanto on the belt sander. I gotta say, big mistake on my part. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" /> Going from sharpening curves to an angled tip like the Tanto completly threw me, and I buggered up the edge at first. But, I kept my cool, and even managed to correct my mess without any real permanent damage to the blade. It actually looks pretty good.

So, I relax for a little while, and all of a sudden, I got the urge to sharpen something.

Next up, my kitchen Santoku knives. These are a set of three different length Napastyle Santoku blades, made of some good steel. I didn't reprofile these, just sharpened them, so the lowest I went was a 500 grit (40 Micron) belt. I didn't need to do much to bring an edge back onto these, and they'll now slice a tomato into paper thin slices.

Now, I decided to go all out and do my MPLE and BDLE. I wanted to do a little re-profiling on these, so I started with the 220 grit. The MPLE was quick and easy, so easy in fact that I thought I must be dreaming. It'll circumsise a fly now, it's that sharp! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Now it's the BDLEs' turn.

The BDLE was a little tougher, because I had to be careful not to overheat the tip while sharpening, due to the thinness of the steel on this knife. I did very quick runs against the belt, of the last 1.5" of the tip to prevent any overheating; this slowed me down, as I had to be careful to do a carefully angled, quick swipe. It wasn't easy, but the resulting edge came out looking like a very sweet slicer, just perfect for gutting fish and fowls.

I hope to get my camera back from my buddy tomorrow, so that I can put some pics up for you guys. I just wanted to give you an update on how my sander skills are progressing. Tomorrow, I'm thinking of doing my Tan Yardkeeper; wish me luck. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crossfingers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Wow, sounds like you are progressing quickly. that is very cool

I wish someone would make a 2" X 72" leather belt for my KMG

I just kept a cup/mug/grass of water near by when I did my MPLE/HCLE/HCSE/BDLE on the HR 1X30. Each pass ended with a dip in the water to keep things cool.

I have a leather belt (intending to use green compound on it), but it seems really slack and not very functional. I end up using a leather strop with compound for final polish instead. Anyone have any tips to get success with the leather belts, or do I just have an 'out of spec' specimen?

I noticed that mine was pretty slack as well, especially after using it a couple times.

I pulled up on the arm of the sander to tighten it up as much as possible, then "pushed" in carefully with the blade to take up any remaining slack. It put a little more pressure on the blade while honing, but this is the leather belt, not one of the 150 grits, so I figured it'd be okay. If anything, the little extra pressure against the belt and blade helped the honing put that mirror finish on the edge.