Sharpening Ceramic Blades

J

John Frankl

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Oct 16, 2001
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By brother-n-law just got back from Japan, where he bought me a ceramic-bladed kitchen knife.

I am just wondering what the recommended method of sharpening is (I have DMT stones and a KMG).

Thanks,

John
 
As far as i know there you wont need to sharpen it, but i dont have any expierence with ceramic blades. If you feel the need i'd say diamond rod/stone maybe? Cermaic is some really really hard stuff
 
No personal experience with ceramic knives. I've cut other ceramics. If you get it dull, easiest way is to send it back to manufacturer for a touch up.
 
It will respond to most abrasives, slowly, so you can't be sloppy and switch large grits like in steels, i.e., go from x-coarse to x-fine. You also need a VERY high polish at a relatively obtuse angle.

-Cliff
 
Thanks, Cliff.

So a progression of DMT stones from course to extra fine might work?

Also, I was thinking that the Fikes method might work in order to get all scratch marks running parallel to the cutting edge. This was after seeing something on Kyocera knives about cracks propagating from large perpendicular tool marks.

John
 
Why do you need to sharpen to a very fine grit with ceramic? I've never used any ceramic blades.
 
This is unknown territory for me, but I would assume you would need a sharpening system that is harder than the ceramic knife. Being the case try using a diamond hone, use light pressure as ceramic tends to be brittle, and be patient sharpening, as it may take some time.
 
I've got all the above comments. My in-laws seemed to have tested it out on some bones, etc. :(. Now I have to restore it to usable condition.

John
 
Let us know how it goes. My college roommate had a Boker folder with a ceramic blade he asked me to sharpen. I took it to my 2500 grit diamond stone, and it did remove material from the blade. However, the pressure from the stone would pop tiny chips out of the edge as fast as I could remove them. This was even with using very light pressure. If I stroked it across the stone light as a feather, the chipping seemed to stop; however it would have taken me a week to get it sharp going that light.

From that experience I figured the best thing would be to have a very fine diamond wheel on a grinder/lapidary setup or whatever. That way you could apply extremely light pressure while the wheel spun fast enough to remove a worthwhile amount of ceramic. If you have better results, tell us what you did.
 
the possum said:
Let us know how it goes. My college roommate had a Boker folder with a ceramic blade he asked me to sharpen. I took it to my 2500 grit diamond stone, and it did remove material from the blade. However, the pressure from the stone would pop tiny chips out of the edge as fast as I could remove them. This was even with using very light pressure. If I stroked it across the stone light as a feather, the chipping seemed to stop; however it would have taken me a week to get it sharp going that light.

From that experience I figured the best thing would be to have a very fine diamond wheel on a grinder/lapidary setup or whatever. That way you could apply extremely light pressure while the wheel spun fast enough to remove a worthwhile amount of ceramic. If you have better results, tell us what you did.
Click to expand...
Who makes a 2500 grit diamond stone?
 
Larrin said:
Why do you need to sharpen to a very fine grit with ceramic? I've never used any ceramic blades.
Click to expand...

Doesn't respond well to coarse finishes, not from what I have seen, nor those I have talked to. I meant to look at it again lately as I can sharpen better now than when I last looked at it which was some years ago.

-Cliff
 
I was able to take 99% of the chips out with a DMT extra fine paddle. I used the Fikes method so that all scratches are now running parallel to the cutting edge. I am hoping this helps with future chipping.

John
 
Larrin said:
Who makes a 2500 grit diamond stone?
Click to expand...

I did. It started out more like 400 grit or so, but that was before I used it a few thousand times. :) I now mostly use it for polishing (including polishing my miniature knife blades), and am just estimating the grit level compared to the finish left by wet/dry SiC sandpaper. Maybe more like 2000 grit... It gets coarser towards the ends since I didn't sharpen on them as much.
 
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