Ceramic Blades

Knives that will be sold to people that don't know very much about knives or how to sharpen them. The reason that I dislike ceramic so much, is because it is too brittle to be a useful knife, too hard to sharpen to be a kitchen knife and the rust resistance is irrelevant if you take care of your knives. I would take any super-steel or high carbon over ceramic any day of the week.
 
The only ceramic knife I have is a Boker Delta. Very elegant and lightweight (titanum handles and a fine looking black ceramic blade). It is also very comfortable in the hand and the mechanics are outstanding (the backlock works flawlessly with no bladeplay at all).
The blade cuts like a dream (think S30V like cotton and ceramic like silk) and stays sharp for a long time.
But I seldom carry the knife because I'm quite afraid to damage the blade. I heard it's enough to drop it on the concrete and it breaks. Also, don't even think of prying. There's no chance to reprofile a twisted tip (because there won't be any twisted tip - there will be no tip at all).
And indeed, sharpening is the best part. It could prove a funny experience if you already built a couple pyramids so you got used to long term work. Otherwise, I had the pleasure of noticing how the ceramic blade slides over the corners of my Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker like a pair of well oiled roller skates on a equally well polished floor.
Now don't get me wrong, I love this knife, but one has to be careful when carying such thing. More careful than with a regular knife, I'd say.
Otherwise, I think ceramic is a fine material and has its place in the cutlery industry. It will probably work best in a small skinner blade.
 
Maybe a ceramic edged knife, but I don't think a full ceramic blade is practical for most peoples, because especially in kitchen knives they do get banged around and kitchen knives are very thin. If they find a way to bond ceramic to a knife blade and make the edge ceramic I think I would buy it.
 
I have used a Kyocera kitchen knife. Really sharp out of the box and the ultimate in corrosion resistance. Held its edge quite a while.

But is was fatally flawed. It is only suitable for softer materials. Ceramic is a brittle materal and as a consecuence it is very easy to break or chip accidentally. Do not drop, pry, twist, cut into bone or wire, etc. This also makes ceramic knives tricky to sharpen. I broke the tip off of mine early on and my sharpening attempts were disasters.

Other people have sucessfully sharpened them though, see http://www.cutleryscience.com/reviews/ok_45.html for an interesting review.

I do recommend the Kyocera ceramic vegetable peeler. Mine is sharp after a couple of years of daily use, it is corrosion proof, easy to clean, and since the ceramic cutter is protected from impacts, durable. Some people feel it cuts kind of deep for a peeler though. And I did manage to break one, but it was the plastic mounting, not the ceramic cutter, that broke.
 
24REDWOODS said:
What Knives Are Best Suited For A Ceramic Blade?
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Perhaps a small kitchen blade or a small gents knife. Something that will see only very straight cutting that puts no torque or side-pressure on the blade. As many have already posted, ceramic blades are brittle and are ill-suited for most real world usage.
 
i used to have a boker ceramic with a gray bone handle. very beautiful knife. i bought it super cheap, carried it as an edc for a few months, and then sold it for a huge profit.

the knife was sharp enough to be dangerous, but not as sharp as i expected. i used it every day for the typical edc stuff, boxes, tape, envelopes, bags, etc... it did fine on all accounts. it never got dull.

the blade was tougher than i expected. though, i still was always nervous about dropping it and breaking it. so i sold it. she was a beauty though.

definitely a novelty knife.
 
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