Super EASY knife sharpening on a 1x30 Grinder

This is an easy method to sharpen your knives on a Harbor Freight 1x30 grinder. There are other ways of doing this, but I found this gives me the most consistent results. Here are links to the items I used in this video:
Belt Grinder (Be sure to use the 20% of coupons) www.harborfreight.com/1-in-x-3...
Belts www.amazon.com/POWERTEC-11137...
Leather Strop belt www.amazon.com/x30-Leather-Ho...
Polishing compound www.amazon.com/Herbs-Yellowst...
This is a cheap method to get your knives scary sharp without using time consuming stones. Takes a little practice, but its well worth the time

[@AndyEmerson8]

I just bought one of these belt sanders from harbor freight and am waiting for my belts to arrive from Amazon. I plan on sharpening every single knife I have during this coronavirus quarantine.

[@walkertj2]

I'm just getting into this, so I don't want to sound all knowing, because I'm not. But, if you you have never seen the Surgi-Sharp Angle Guide, check it out. It takes the guess work out of maintaining the proper angle. Using it, you will be sharpening edge leading rather than edge tailing. As a result, it will not develop a bur during sharpening. I know there is multiple schools of thought on edge leading sharpening being more dangerous with cutting belts and potentially dislodging the knife. However, the guide has a slot where the belt runs through it, so if a belt did break, it stays within the guide. You can find multiple videos here on YT about it. It costs about $30 on ebay and Amazon.

[@phbrinsden]

I recently bought a 1 x 30 and never thought of laying the machine on its back. Much more convenient and intuitive way to sharpen a blade. The upright way is good for general corner round in metal work etc. very helpful video. Thanks.

[@andie_pants]

I was going to comment pretty much the exact same thing. Never in a million years would I have thought turn the belt horizontal.

[@americanfisherman9781]

Nice work and very informative!

[@Feverdream7777]

Defintely life changing. Been 1x30 sharpening now for 6 months... it's .... just.... awesome. Period

[@BearRiverKnives]

It really is! Having sharp knives makes a huge difference!

[@themonkeydrunken]

Do you use a leather belt? If so, are you using the smooth side out or the unfinished side out?

[@garethbaus5471]

​@@themonkeydrunken I use a leather belt with the smooth side out and som cheap white compound, it works great. (i don't think it really matters which side you use)

[@TestEric]

Amazing job, great intro video on the subject, very concise. Thanks for including grit of belt, too many people do not. With an old butter knife I tried 400 grit belt and removed the burr on mdf, then used a homemade leather strop, and the blade was scary sharp. Push cut through paper, and cleanly shaved. Thanks for the great video.

[@TestEric]

Sad you don't have newer videos but I get it, hope you're doing well.

[@CrankyFrankie59]

Thanks for doing this video. Clearly, you know how to use a belt sander to sharpen. What I'd like to add is that this kind of machine can take off a lot of metal very quickly. I'd recommend, as you did, to practice on cheap knives; keep water for dipping handy; wear safety glasses; and above all work slowly and carefully like you did. I have one of these cheap grinders and I like your tip about putting it on it's back, but I think, for my really good knives, I'll stick with stones or some kind of a guided system. Having said that, the excellent TV show "Modern Marvels" did an episode on sharpness, and they went to the Cutco factory in NY, where they make high-end, ultra-sharp kitchen knives. The people there sharpen them on belts but only after years of experience. So I think that's the takeaway here - when you know what you're doing with a belt sander you can get excellent results. Then again, when you know what you're doing, you can sharpen on cinderblock and get good results! Again, thanks for the excellent video.

[@BearRiverKnives]

Thank you for watching and the kind words! its never a bad idea to use stones for your upkeep on the nice knives. Plus it takes all the risk away from ruining the temper. I haven't seen that episode of Modern Marvels, but you bet I'm going to watch it! I have always liked Cutco knives

[@garethbaus5471]

Cutco are not that good.

[@CJ-hw4zc]

That's exactly what I do!

[@sntaylor241]

Awesome video and I've learned a lot from you! When you strop on the leather belt, do you put the knife on the platen (metal area below the leather) or the slack area just under the platen? Also, are you using light pressure?

[@prairiepucker9392]

I've been sharpening this way since early 2000's using a Delta 1x42 and found a lot of misinformation the thrust of which is that this is a terrible way to sharpen a knife. Fortunately the people that pay me to sharpen their knives don't agree. I like the idea of laying the machine down but unfortunately can't do that. Two points I'll mention. First, by virtue of its larger size the front side of my sander provides more vertical length of belt space. A platen backs up the section of belt immediately above the table, but above the platen is about 6 inches of unsupported belt before it wraps around the tension pulley above. I use the platen to establish the by eye using a piece of cardboard layed out with a protractor and trimmed to size as a rough visual aid. Second point, the is where I establish the for the cutting edge. In reality, this angle actually has a slight curvature to it as the belt itself is curved where the blade contacts. Using the curvature of the belt removes the criticality of trying to hold an exact and perfect angle. The actual length of the surface established by the secondary angle is very small, nearly invisible. But it's this surface that you'll renew as the knife dulls. After the secondary angle is established I've taken to polishing in the primary angle with a leather belt with white rouge followed by green. Resharpening usually only requires a belt with white rouge followed by green. A really dull blade might require the 27 micron film. In terms of specific angles they're not critical, but the secondary might be 35 degrees included angle and the primary 40 degrees. For thin knives that appear to already have decent angles, my "sanding" belts (assuming I'm starting with a blade in fairly decent condition) begin with 27 micron micropolishing film working to a 9 micron and finishing with a leather belt with green rouge. For thicker blades requiring more metal removal, conventional grits begin with 600, 800 and 1000 before progressing to the films. I'd be very nervous about using a 400 grit as the metal can literally melt away. How well does this work? I have an old WWII Army surplus knife that was abused, stored in a dirty damp leather sheath for 50 years, never oiled, used for playing mumblety-peg, etc. It was a mess. It's still butt-ugly. But you can shave with it. I showed it to some skeptics and they proceeded to shave S-curves through the center of a sheet of printer paper. Shaved off 1/16" wide paper curlycues. They were amazed.

[@pat6124]

I've seen on other videos that the Harbor Freight runs to fast. Would a reostat work to adjust the voltage lower to slow it down?

[@BearRiverKnives]

Unfortunately life is never that easy. The motor used on the grinder is an AC motor. In short, a rheostat only limits voltage going to the motor. With an AC motor, lower voltage means lower torque. Wouldnt be able to drive the belt and would eventually burn the motor out. if you wanted to get crafty you could get yourself an old treadmill motor and build a motor controller. there is an awesome video on these controllers i believe titled "cheap treadmill motor controller". the one I made for the grinder I'm building cost me around 15 bucks on eBay for the parts and only a few minutes to put together. you could then find a way to fit the motor to the grinder and have variable speed

[@Spectt84]

Thanks for the info... I've been collecting pocketknives for a couple years and don't have a good way to keep them sharp. I picked up a hf 1x30 and haven't played around with it yet. On your leather strop, it looked like you had the ruff side of the leather facing out. Is that correct? Have you tried the smooth side? Other videos say to use the smooth side. I'm trying to figure out if it matters. I don't want to waste a $25 belt. Thanks for the effort and video btw.

[@BearRiverKnives]

Yeah so the leather is the rough side out. The compound you use will determine what side you use. I use the Yellowstone compound which is more chalky than pasty so it needs to be able to grab onto more surface material than the smooth side. I dont see anyone really going wrong using either side though

[@junxiangkoh1794]

I use the smooth surface for stropping as I use a green extra fine compound that can be easily found in Amazon

[@franciscojavier3625]

*I got this last week and used it already for pipe making/shaping. It is good for shaping briar blocks for pipes after initial block cutting. It is not noisy, and works very well.>>>**0rz.tw/p5d0** There is not much assembly required and it is very easy. The only caveat to be aware of is that the plastic dust cover under the round sanding disk table has a notch which makes it impossible to screw into place - manufacture mis-measure of this specific plastic part. You will need to get a small file and file this notch off then it goes into place as smooth as butter.*