ceramic blades

[jonboy]

Just bought a vegetable peeler...sort of Y shaped thing with a ceramic blade.... Seriously good, so went back to the store and bought a small veggy knife and a general purpose 'sabatier' style or psycho type 30cm general purpose cook's knife Again so far absolutely sold on 'em.... Whats the techno opinion here and why aren't they (or are they) making their way into the tool chest...I'm impressed, but it's early days... or have they been around a while and i'm a bit in the sticks here.....?

[Gib Etheridge]

They've been around here for a few years now. I think they're pretty expensive, but they do take a very fine edge and hold it for a long while. My customers bring me one or two per year on an average, I sharpen them with a fine diamond belt. I hear they are not nearly as brittle as one would expect.

[Gold Rock]

I've been casually curious about them myself for years. I always chalked up their relative scarcity to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" notion, in that ferrous blades seem to be doing everything folks want of them well enough and the general cutlery/edge tool marketplace is already heavily fought over. I'd like to try a ceramic blade though. Cool technology.

[Ron Williamson]

I just picked up 3 ceramic paring knives for $0.75 CDN from a thrift store.
I've tried to sharpen them on a diamond wheel that looks pretty fine,but they don't really take.
They're sharp-ish,but not SHARP.
R

[RFNK]

There's a range of Scanpan ceramic knives sold in Australia that seem very sharp to me and they're really cheap (as in inexpensive!). I haven't actually tried them yet but I'm tempted. I'm wondering what the down side is too!

Rick

[Paul Pless]

I haven't actually tried them yet but I'm tempted. I'm wondering what the down side is too!

Hard to sharpen, they're more brittle than steel knives, and they have zero flexibility.

[jonboy]

three days later... I've been helping out a pal with a hotel/restaurant....bit of a traditionalist in the hotroom..and thought I d see what he had to say... general verdict of both of us, supersharp and still supersharp after three or four hours boning out flanks of beef..and three days of general use.... excellent at pulling out the tenderloin from a side of chop-pork and then finely slicing it, a job I have always left to a carbon steel sheffield ham knife I ground down to suit the job some time ago, which probably still is the best as it has a bit of a bend to it if needed, but has to be licked up every twenty mins or so to keep the edge...more pros, clean and quick, none of that slice an onion and spend five mins polishing off the blackening......no taste to the food, I notice that on garlic and onions again, and the diced veg seem to fall from the blade more quickly when you are in a hurry... dropped it a few times and so far it ain't fragile...
Downsides.... it isn't flexible, but that's handy for filletting, and the handle of mine is all sort of integral to the whole thing and it's a bit slippery..and contrary to the above posts, the knives were not at all cheap... more than a good Solingen or Sabatier, and they are pastel pink and blue with the obligatory jap or chinee idiograms...ho hum.
Still waiting to see if they enter the tool market somehow, but in the Kitchen I'm sold... apart from the fact If I give up the carbon steel it's one less reason for a moan...' did you just use my best knife to cut an orange for chrissake' or 'how mny times have I said don't put that knife with the sort of split flaky ebony handle in the dishwasher, yes, that (now) rusty one .... ... and I do like that therapeutic once -a-month over to the workshop with all the blades for a resharp..

[Gold Rock]

I talked to a friend of mine yesterday who runs a popular cafe. She's used ceramic knives for quite a while. Many of the above comments (#7) she confirms. Her biggest 'con' is sharpening. Her sharpening abilities run only as far as being able to use a steel well enough on her ferrous knives to help out, but says it does no good on the ceramic ones. That said, she sends all her knives out to be sharpened professionally. She said she sends the ceramic ones out much less often. I wonder what that material would do for a plane blade. From what I've learned here, I'd think it would be too brittle. Would it crack or chip badly if you hit a nail, or even a hard knot? Hmm.

[Paul Pless]

I wonder what that material would do for a plane blade. From what I've learned here, I'd think it would be too brittle. Would it crack or chip badly if you hit a nail, or even a hard knot? Hmm.

I wonder if you'd break a ceramic plane blade by tightening the bolt holding the chip breaker against the blade or by whatever mechanism wedges the blade against the frog or plane body. . .

[Nicholas Carey]

I talked to a friend of mine yesterday who runs a popular cafe. She's used ceramic knives for quite a while. Many of the above comments (#7) she confirms. Her biggest 'con' is sharpening. Her sharpening abilities run only as far as being able to use a steel well enough on her ferrous knives to help out, but says it does no good on the ceramic ones. That said, she sends all her knives out to be sharpened professionally. She said she sends the ceramic ones out much less often.

Ceramic blades are made from a form of cubic zirconium with a Mohs' Hardness c. 8.5 (diamond being 10.0). Hardened tool steel like a sharpening steel or file runs about Mohs 6.0–6.5 or so. Steeling a ceramic blade is likely just to dull the steel.

If you buy a Kyocera ceramic blade, it comes with free lifetime sharpening. You send it back either to the mother ship in Japan, or to their sharpening facility in California. They probably have other sharpening facilities in other countries as well.

[Gib Etheridge]

You should be able to sharpen a ceramic knife pretty easily on a diamond stone.

http://www.google.ca/search?tbm=isch....0.QdYCsr71R4g