Elastic Ceramic knife - 2,350 cuts by Cedric & Ada

scdub said:
Really?? Dang it I thought that was too good a price. Hmm - the wharnie isn’t as interesting but we’ll see...
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I know right?!?!?!

You were the one that got me super excited that I started digging into it. Hahahahha! :D

We'll just have to see what happens a little down the road. Between this and CPM-MagnaCut, still very exciting.
 
This “elastic ceramic” is interesting. But toughness similar to Rex-121 is not very good. The more knives I make, the more I prefer tougher steels over ultra-high hardness. 60-62RC and high toughness is the sweet spot imo.
 
Slightly interested. As much as I love folders and fixies, I never got into kitchen knives. Have a few serrated Spydies and other than that, I buy the ceramic kitchen knives at Harbor Freight by the arm full and treat them as disposable. They last for months and at $7 each they destroy anything in their price range. I throw them in the sink with reckless abandon and haven't had any breakage or major chipping so far.
 
Hello
It is me, Roman from KKnives Switzerland, who makes these knives. First a little video below, more videos in the making:

Second, the price of 70-100USD is for chef knives indeed! The wharnie necker will actually be more expensive, and I am/we are currently focussing on kitchen knives.
Can't answer all questions because I am getting absolutely bombarded with messages, but this material is something entirely new. Watch my YouTube and especially Instagram for more info; new video to be released today 7pm, central european time.
Roman
 
Larrin said:
In that same comment he also said that it “is in the same toughness range as Rex 121.” That would be pretty tough for a ceramic but of course that is about as brittle as steel can be considering Rex 121 is typically 69+ Rc and has over 30% carbide in it.
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For a ceramic, it is extremely tough actually, yet of course your Magnacut is tougher Larrin. ;)
Personally, I think a knife from the elastic ceramic together with a steel knife made from high quality Steel -like Magnacut- for high toughness applications is THE combo for the kitchen.

Edit: I actually just got informed that my Magnacut bar is soon to be shipped. Once I have it and made a knife from it, I think it would be a good idea to make a video where I compare Magnacut and the elastic ceramic side by side so that people can see the advantages and disadvantages of both materials side by side. I think these two blade materials compliment each other perfectly. For example, for a cleaver, the ceramic is not a good choice, but Magnacut is a top choice. (Already because of the low weight of the ceramic alone, haha. Even if the ceramic was tough enough, which one day might happen, it's simply too light weight for generating enough impact force in cleaving applications.)
I don't see this new kind of ceramic as a threat to high end steel knives for the nearer future - but the typical "Chinese Made Walmart knives" better watch out...
 
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patrickguignot said:
I noticed he threw the knife on wood and not on concrete. But it's certainly an interesting material and if it's really less than $100 a piece I'll buy one.
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Gonna do the concrete throw in the video I am making today; the videos I made so far were pretty improvised. And to be honest, I find myself sceptical every time when I use this stuff - it's pretty freaky. And as I mentioned before regarding the Magnacut: steel definitely has - and will have for the forseeable future - several advantages this flexible ceramic doesn't have. But also some things the flexible ceramic just does better. Today, 7pm central european time, I will upload a video on my Instagram and YouTube where I will go into detail about this and compare knives from both steel and the elastic ceramic so that people can get a better understanding of what the elastic ceramic can and cannot do. It's not the "end all be all" knife like they loved to claim in those cheesy 90ies' commercials. But it is a significant advancement in materials, that's save to say I think. (To cite Basil from Pete's Video: "Yes. New materials."
 
Three of my favorite edges:
091EC451-F7F4-4372-B8D1-CE5BC86ECD80.jpeg
481009A8-A4FC-4003-81E3-644836ECE9A6.jpeg
Top one is the first knife I forged from 5160 with lots of help from this forum. (Shout-out to Stacey Apelt for amazing amounts of help). It’s differentially tempered to about 55 rockwell, with the primary purpose of being a boot carried entry/rescue tool. In reality, after 16 years X 40 hours per week of carry, it’s helped rescue one lady who ended up expiring, and along with random hammering duties, it’s primarily function has been to help severely injured wild animals into Valhalla. Anyway - tough edge.
Second two are Japanese made - first is a vintage razor I use to shave my neck-beard every few days.
Bottom one is by Shosui Takeda and is by far my best wood carving edge. Zero bevel that flexes and is hardened to the low 60s. Point is: there’s no perfect material or knife - but for cutting certain materials, this elastic ceramic looks very promising. If the wharncliff still ends up with a sub $100 price tag I’m in. :)
 
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K KKnives_Swiss thanks for coming into this thread to comment. :thumbsup:

There are still many of questions of course. But for a knife that has >50% improvement in edge retention over Rex121 but at the same toughness, and can be sharpened by ordinary people - that's something!!

Look forward to hearing more details from you.
 
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scdub said:
Three of my favorite edges:
View attachment 1542057
View attachment 1542058
Top one is the first knife I forged from 5160 with lots of help from this forum. (Shout-out to Stacey Apelt for amazing amounts of help). It’s differentially tempered to about 55 rockwell, with the primary purpose of being a boot carried entry/rescue tool. In reality it’s helped rescue one lady who ended up expiring, and helped several severely injured wild animals into Valhalla. Anyway - tough edge.
Second two are Japanese made - first is a vintage razor I use to shave my neck-beard every few days.
Bottom one is by Shosui Takeda and is by far my best wood carving edge. Zero bevel that flexes and is hardened to the low 60s. Point is: there’s no perfect material or knife - but for cutting certain materials, this elastic ceramic looks very promising. If the wharncliff still ends up with a sub $100 price tag I’m in. :)
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I ABSOLUTELY agree!! A wise man once said "If the only tool a man has is a hammer, everything looks like a nail to him." That's the narrative I DON'T want to spread about the elastic ceramic, because while it will excel at some things, it won't do at other things. Just like Rex121 shouldn't be used for high toughness demanding applications, so can't the elastic ceramic. That's why I want my customers to have a choice between as many steels, hardnesses and blade materials as possible, to meet a wide spectrum of demands. Made some breaching tools too btw, S7 steel at 56-57HRC, better don't try what I am doing here with the flexible ceramic, it's not made for this kind of application:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCYk16lD7vW/

But if you want an affordable blade that will cut 65% longer than even a tungsten carbide blade while being resharpenable, is flexible AND not brittle, cannot corrode and be dropped on the floor without worry plus extremely light weight, then the elastic ceramic is for you. If you want to breach doors and don't have a 12 gauge at hand, use something like S7 tool steel.


Now I need to go back to making the afformentioned in depth video about the ceramic versus steel, or I won't make it by tonight.
 
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Saw this on Instagram today. Looking forward to the sharpening video and seeing a few out in the real world with realistic reviews after.
 
Spears said:
I know right?!?!?!

You were the one that got me super excited that I started digging into it. Hahahahha! :D

We'll just have to see what happens a little down the road. Between this and CPM-MagnaCut, still very exciting.
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Sorry to get your hopes up man! Was really looking forward to a $100 hyper-chef knife. Still, I’m imagining the wharncliffe in some nice cushy handle wrap doing the rest of the package opening and cardboard cutting duties for the rest of my life with a sharpening every 6 months or so...
 
scdub said:
Sorry to get your hopes up man! Was really looking forward to a $100 hyper-chef knife. Still, I’m imagining the wharncliffe in some nice cushy handle wrap doing the rest of the package opening and cardboard cutting duties for the rest of my life with a sharpening every 6 months or so...
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As I wrote above, these will indeed cost 100 USD. (50-100USD to be exact; depending on model and geometry.) So you were correct! :)
 
Missed that post re: kitchen knife prices - awesome - can’t wait!
 
I think these knives look incredibly interesting. I have never chased the edge retention dragon as I don't mind sharpening a knife, especially in the kitchen. However, the pros of ceramic blades has made it one of my favorite go-to hard use knives while cooking.
They are light in hand, cut through most things short of bone, and I can cut food in my cast iron without worrying about buggering the edge.

Most of mine have been the cheap white blades coming in around $30 a piece. I would gladly pay $100 for a knife that will out perform what I am using, is more durable, and is frankly just cool and unique :) I look forward to seeing more from this.
 
I would like to find out how this ceramic material would do with lower edge angles, like ~25 degrees inclusive or ~20 degrees inclusive.
And if the knives would also do well with those lower angles in pro-kitchens, that would be even better.
Already have a couple of pro-Chefs in mind who might want to give these a try, as they are known to me for the quality of their feedback.
 
kwackster said:
I would like to find out how this ceramic material would do with lower edge angles, like ~25 degrees inclusive or ~20 degrees inclusive.
And if the knives would also do well with those lower angles in pro-kitchens, that would be even better.
Already have a couple of pro-Chefs in mind who might want to give these a try, as they are known to me for the quality of their feedback.
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I am currently investigating this. The focus until pretty much today was getting the chef knife thing rolling - now I want to look into things like razorblades and scalpels. The microstructure of the material is fine enough to take hair shaving edges - I got one almost face shave ready the other day, but I didn't have enough time as of now to finish the job. I will pursue this for sure.
 
KKnives_Swiss said:
Second, the price of 70-100USD is for chef knives indeed! The wharnie necker will actually be more expensive, and I am/we are currently focussing on kitchen knives.
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scdub said:
Sorry to get your hopes up man! Was really looking forward to a $100 hyper-chef knife. Still, I’m imagining the wharncliffe in some nice cushy handle wrap doing the rest of the package opening and cardboard cutting duties for the rest of my life with a sharpening every 6 months or so...
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Good, I'm glad I got corrected. This is indeed fantastic. :D

I'm guessing the necker might cost more because thicker stock of the material will be much more difficult to work with? Either way, we're gonna need a Shard run with this stuff. :thumbsup:
 
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