A leather honing belt

[aulddiy]

Now right off I'm a Scotsman, and greedy as hell! That saves all the side comments.
I've a belt sander a cheapo of course works fine. The sharpening machines I would like are truly beyond my purse. So I thought a I'd try making a leather belt the same dimensions as the sanding belt.
Any suggestions on how to join the two ends.
I looked at my spare sanding belts and they seem to be joined by a thin blue tape.
Any help welcome.

rgds
John

[AlArchie]

Her's a link to a site with a couple suggestions. leather drive belt - Blacksmith Forum

I've joined a few rubber mini-lathe belts with the taper end and glue technique and it seems to work OK. Should work just as well on a leather belt.

The best suggestion I saw was to taper the ends on a sander, each taper going back about 2" then joining with contact cement.

Al

Al

[aulddiy]

Al I think thats the way to go. The explanation there is clear enough.. I'm off to give it atry.
thanks
John

[BobT]

I just went to the shop and looked at the leather belt on my Chipping Away sharpener. It is worn too smooth to get any photos. It is just like AlArchie says though, angled or tapered on both ends. Mine is about 3/4 of an inch but I think 2 inches as he suggested would be more secure. The important part, I think, is that it maintains the thickness of the belt in the joint. I had one that was done wrong at that joint and it was quite a apeed bump. I guess it still worked OK but it was very annoying.

By the way, the Woodcraft Shop sells the belts for around $15.00. That may be cost prohibitive with shipping. I priced the leather at Tandys and it was almost as much as buying the finished belt. I went for the finished belt.