03-04-2020, 02:32 PM
Great to see you back Mr. Jan. I’m a Cubitron fan and would even wear a Cubitron branded hat if someone gave me one. The belts cut really well, last a long time and maintain a consistent grit level longer than any other belts I’ve tried. I also like the even way they feel when grinding. I have both the regular Cubitron and Cubitron II belts. The 150 grit belts I use are regular Cubitron, not the newer Cubitron II. The last I checked the newer Cubitron II belts were only available in coarser grits.
I’ve seen the 3M add copy showing the pointy Cubitron II abrasive crystals all standing at attention on the belt surface ready to go to battle.
Here is a microscope image I took of a new 120 grit Cubitron II belt.
To me it looks more like the irritated skin of a red faced teenager suffering with zits, blackheads and ingrown hairs than an army of pointy little abrasive particles magically adhered and standing at attention on the belt surface. Maybe I need a more powerful microscope to see it. That said, those 120 grit Cubitron II belts are very sharp, cut like crazy and are great belts when 120 grit is needed. I’ve tried it and they are too gnarly for knife sharpening, but are most excellent belts nonetheless.
It was an interesting blade to sharpen. It apparently had chipped during normal use. It didn’t seem like particularly hard or for that matter soft steel when I ground it. Just sort of normal. For whatever reason 150 grit seemed to propagate the chipping but after getting the chips out with a finer abrasive regrinding with 150 grit worked okay. Maybe the very edge had become brittle and grinding with the finer abrasive just happened to get down to stronger steel. Maybe if I had continued with the 150 grit the same thing would have happened.
Good to see you back again too Ken!
I’ve seen the 3M add copy showing the pointy Cubitron II abrasive crystals all standing at attention on the belt surface ready to go to battle.
Here is a microscope image I took of a new 120 grit Cubitron II belt.
To me it looks more like the irritated skin of a red faced teenager suffering with zits, blackheads and ingrown hairs than an army of pointy little abrasive particles magically adhered and standing at attention on the belt surface. Maybe I need a more powerful microscope to see it. That said, those 120 grit Cubitron II belts are very sharp, cut like crazy and are great belts when 120 grit is needed. I’ve tried it and they are too gnarly for knife sharpening, but are most excellent belts nonetheless.
It was an interesting blade to sharpen. It apparently had chipped during normal use. It didn’t seem like particularly hard or for that matter soft steel when I ground it. Just sort of normal. For whatever reason 150 grit seemed to propagate the chipping but after getting the chips out with a finer abrasive regrinding with 150 grit worked okay. Maybe the very edge had become brittle and grinding with the finer abrasive just happened to get down to stronger steel. Maybe if I had continued with the 150 grit the same thing would have happened.
Good to see you back again too Ken!