The blade gets a bit warm if I'm really leaning into it with the 80 grit, so I dunked it every pass then, but when I go to light pressure with the finer 180 grit, it rarely heats up much. The Blue Zirconia belts run cool. I think it actually is better to use light pressure all the way through. I only dunked it once or twice when I tried to remove more stock with greater pressure, but I don't think it did much but heat up the blade more. It never got really hot. My hand is right there on the blade the whole time.

You wouldn't have to remove the scales. You'd probably have to have some nice, new, sharp media for the INFI. I'd just put some clay or wax in the rivet holes to keep them from getting blasted. Micarta with a bb finish is nice and frosty.

BTW nice job on the NMSFNO. The full convex makes it look great.