My boyfriend has dreadlocks and he got ' randomly selected ' a LOT during our travels last year . Yeah it sure is 100 % random <| sep |> I think I see a breakdown of communication here . What I was referring to which i should ' ve stated more clearly is that post HT and tempering , it is totally fine to finish a knife ' s primary bevels to sharpening thickness as long as you are very careful of the temp you keep the edge at . Your replied link deals with sharpening , which has nothing to do with the comment you originally commented to . the comment was You can use a belt grinder post heat treat , but you do need to take care to keep the blade cool . I just dunk it in a water quench every 23 passes . no qualms with that , that ' s a bladesmithing standard . i even dip mine in water after every pass if not every other to keep below tempering temperatures though you must be careful based on grit and speed of the belt . where I see the problem is with the first line of the link you posted . ' I read a number of references to Roman Landes saying that if dry abrading WHILST SHARPENING , the vicinity of the very edge gets overheated . Could somebody please explain what techniques he used to determine this ? ' Sharpening is not the equivalent of finishing a knife post HT . That ' s skipping over 90 % of the work that goes into finishing a great knife . Again man , if you want definitive answers , ask the professionals . Your post seems to make it sound like using a belt grinder is a bad idea for finishing not sharpening , though that is easy to do as well as long as you put a little care in knives , while tons of people do exactly that with no problem , professionals and amateurs .