First blade -- total newbie

[wadebevan]

Thanks all.
I walked into H. Freight, took one look at that little (tiny actually) belt grinder and promptly left the building!
The old proverb of 'buy good tools, cry once.  buy bad tools, cry often' has always stuck with me, and I have a hard time buying crappy tools.
I ended up with a porter cable, 4" x 36" from H.D.  Has a disk as well.
After taking all of the plastic off (after I figured out what that burning smell was), it works okay.  It is surely running too fast, and I have to go pretty slow.
It is not an ideal machine for grinding a blade for sure, but, I can always use it in the wood shop.
I've been reading what feels like the 'whole internet' on a decent grinder.
The grizzly, the coote, the NWG, the Kalamazoo, the KMG.... oh my!

So, at this point, I am looking at the Kalamazoo's.

Here is the question, 1" or 2"?
I can mentally see the advantages of either one, but, not having used either, which would be the better choice for a beginner?
Most of my knife plans are on the larger side for kitchen use, so the 2" seems like it might be easier to control over a wide blade.