Knife sharpening with machine-driven belts

[rsser]

heheh.
Yeah, I stripped it down with a view to replacing the bearings. The motor end caps were pressed on by the look of them. Would need to get someone to do it and I didn't figure it would be worth it.

[Ben Dono]

Shopping time it is then!
Make sure you let us all know what you settle on!

[rsser]

There's the rub.
I've got a bunch of 1x30 belts. The only choice for those is the Sonic. OTOH the Sorby ProEdge does most of what I need. It's missing proper power honing but a way around that is to get a good hard felt wheel and run it on the lathe or bench grinder. Decisions!

[Ben Dono]

I'm a big fan of power stropping.. Don't know the speeds of the 1 by 30 machines but what about a cork or leather belt? You can get pretty smooth cork on a roll for fancy bycycle handle wraps. Might be worth a test. I have had luck using regular contact adheasive on old belts.
High speed felt is a tried and tested but there is also paper wheels. They are an economical alternative.... Plus you free up your lathe as the wheels are on another machine.
I use cork wheels made from laminated 300x300 tiles but that is on a dedicated very slow speed buffing machine.

[rsser]

Thanks for those tips BD.
Yes, I've done a bit of honing on a leather belt on the Ryobi and put a wicked micro-bevel on a Japanese knife recently. At this stage that facility would have to be the main reason for replacing the Ryobi.
Belt honing.jpg

[rsser]

Here's the successor, a Sonic from eBay. The guy behind that shop used to have a bricks and mortar shop in the area and I've bought from him before.

It's altogether better made than the Ryobi. Eg. one of the idler wheels is spring loaded.

You can order Trizact belts to fit from him as well.