I recently picked up a Boker Cera-titan pocketknife. The long discontinued Boker Zeta. I wanted a gent folder... the titanium and carbide sintered blade... well. I decided I had to have it.
Doing some research led me to find out that on the masserforums (german language knife forums) the Boker rep talked about how the Japanese guy that made the material was this tinkerer metallurgist that came up with brilliant stuff.. and that he wouldn't tell them enough about it. So anyway they don't know how to sharpen it cause it gets hot, I guess... on the diamond grinders.
Cera Titan is a titanium carbide sintered blade. Best I can figure that means titanium and carbide powders (and a little silver but I don't know what for) are put together, and heated in a vacuum... and as they cool they form one material.
Thats the story. As I have no access to an electron microscope I'm guessing its a fancy way of saying its a titanium blade with tiny bits of carbide in it... probably zirconia cause they keep calling it ceramic... and ceramic knives are made of the same stuff.
Ok.. so. The question is how to sharpen it? If the diamond grinder doesn't work well (so said the boker rep... dunno if its cause of heat or cause of mechanical stress pulling carbide out of the matrix), and regular sharpening stones are going to uh, get roughed up by the carbides in it... then how shall I sharpen it?
I'm thinking balsa or basswood as a strop, with diamond powder paste on top... and time.. and elbow grease.
But it might need a rough edge if the blade cuts cause of micro serrations... so... who knows. Perhaps a polished edge will dull it.
Any help is appreciated!
Doing some research led me to find out that on the masserforums (german language knife forums) the Boker rep talked about how the Japanese guy that made the material was this tinkerer metallurgist that came up with brilliant stuff.. and that he wouldn't tell them enough about it. So anyway they don't know how to sharpen it cause it gets hot, I guess... on the diamond grinders.
Cera Titan is a titanium carbide sintered blade. Best I can figure that means titanium and carbide powders (and a little silver but I don't know what for) are put together, and heated in a vacuum... and as they cool they form one material.
Thats the story. As I have no access to an electron microscope I'm guessing its a fancy way of saying its a titanium blade with tiny bits of carbide in it... probably zirconia cause they keep calling it ceramic... and ceramic knives are made of the same stuff.
Ok.. so. The question is how to sharpen it? If the diamond grinder doesn't work well (so said the boker rep... dunno if its cause of heat or cause of mechanical stress pulling carbide out of the matrix), and regular sharpening stones are going to uh, get roughed up by the carbides in it... then how shall I sharpen it?
I'm thinking balsa or basswood as a strop, with diamond powder paste on top... and time.. and elbow grease.
But it might need a rough edge if the blade cuts cause of micro serrations... so... who knows. Perhaps a polished edge will dull it.
Any help is appreciated!
