Generally with power equipment you are taking off more product that what you need. One pass on a belt sander could equal 30 or 40 passes on a stone. That's all great but what if you only need 15 passes to get the job done? On my butcher knives I use and belt sander because I can get an edge quick but I bought 24 knives on eBay for 22.50 shipped. They work great. I generally can get 1 deer processed with one knife before I have to sharpen them. I don't care about them. But when I'm spending money on a knife I want it to last so my expensive knives only get stones.
I'm excactly opposite. I clean my guns yes, put more grease in em, load em and shoot more. But I love my knives, even the cheap machetes, I love using them from hacking brush to making try sticks from seasoned wood, so they get dulled, cleaned, and resharpened regularly. The process is like yoga for mud junkies.
In 10 minutes, I just put a razor sharp edge on 2 Randall knives and the ESEE Lite Machete. I can literally shave a little with the machete. Hard to believe. I'm happy. I use 1000 grit for a few passes and then the leather strop until it will push cut paper. Just a couple of passes does the trick.
I haven't gone that fine yet. Just been using a worn 400 grit on my machetes. I bought a 400 - 1000 set of belts on amazon but haven't bought a leather belt yet. They claim to be USA made, but I am not sure how I like them yet. They seem to wear too fast. I also found that you really have to lay the blade down much more than you normally would when using the slack section of the belt.
