Below you will find information about sanding belts, abrasives, and backing.

Types of abrasives:

Ceramic

Belts with ceramic abrasive are the workhorses. They remove a lot of material quickly and last a long time—in fact, up to 6 times longer than aluminum oxide. The ceramic grains fracture as you sand, so you always have sharp grains ready. Combat Abrasives' Shredder ceramic belts also contain a "grinding aid" that reduces heat buildup and extends service life.

Well-suited for:

• Sanding most materials, but especially steel. New, unused belts are very effective on wood and plastic
• Removing large amounts of material
• Profile grinding of steel parts/preparation for welding
• When you don't feel like changing belts too often :)

Aluminum Oxide (AO)

Aluminum oxide has many applications but is widely used in abrasive products due to its hardness. The belt contains abrasive in the form of aluminum oxide crystals. AO also boasts low heat capacity and low production costs. Together, this results in solid sanding belts that cut well and are inexpensive. Available with various backings of varying strength, e.g., J-flex and X-weight (see description below).

Well-suited for:

• Most materials including wood, composite, steel, and other metals
• General use in coarse grits
• Detail work in finer grits, e.g., 400 grit for sharpening knife edges

Cork Polishing

Cork belts are, as the name implies, belts with cork grains. These grains are impregnated with silicon carbides. Silicon carbide is on par with diamond in hardness, and the mixture of cork and fine-grained silicon carbide provides a beautiful satin finish.

Well-suited for:

• Used, for example, after fine-sanding with AO belts, providing a nice homogeneous finish
• Often used as the final finishing touch in the sanding phase

 

Belt backing:

J-flex

The softer, more flexible belts are designated as J-flex. They have a lighter backing that allows them to better follow the contours of the product being sanded. Works well for smoothing out sharp edges and corners.

X-weight

Stiffer belts with a harder backing fall into the X-weight category. These still give way under pressure but offer more resistance than J-flex. Used for general sanding with AO belts.

 

Storbua.no and www.eternalknives.com use Combat Abrasives. They do the job best, which is why we have chosen to stock belts from Combat Abrasives:

See our selection by clicking on the logo.