Teach me about ceramics

[jay2pointoh]

I was reading a newsletter and saw that Stone River won the "Best Value" award at Blade 2010. Naturally, I looked them up and found that they use ceramics for their blades. After looking through their page I found a great knife and thought it would be good for my fathers birthday gift. I have googled the heck out of ceramic blades but I would like to hear your opinions. Does it really stay sharper longer? Are the tips more delicate than steel? Would the lock face wear out the ceramic tang faster than steel? What do you think?

-Aussie- Ain't she a beaut?http://theceramicknifestore.com/shop-/shop/get_item/item_id/123/category/Sports+Knives

 

[me2]

To answer your questions, yes it will stay sharp longer, yes the tips are more delicate than steel, and the ceramic tang will wear out the lock face, not the other way around.

Given the list of materials they recommend for cutting, the edge should last just about forever. Of course, you could limit a steel knife to those materials and it would last a looong time too, except maybe rope, but it depends on what kind. I'm not overly impressed with ceramic knives. The ones I've handled were sharp, but not the sharpest edges in existence by a long shot. The blades are more brittle than steel, in spite of what you may read. The edges will not hold longer than steel if the activity will cause fracturing. The points will break off if you drop them on a hard surface, and while the same happens to knives, the damage will be much greater, and you can't regrind the point on ceramic. Notice how many ceramic knives have rounded points now. The are indeed lighter, they will not rust, and have extremely hard edges and very high wear resistance. The lack of toughness means those last 2 traits cannot be used to full advantage. I had some debate a while back about the porosity of the ceramic, but there may not be any, depending on what brand and how well the ceramics are fired (sintered).

 

[axtalan0]

I recently started a thread about this knife, maybe some helpful info there. It caught my eye, I love the way it looks, and I've always wanted to try a ceramic knife, but after what people said about it in my thread, I decided not to get it.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743006

 

[DennisStrickland]

i drop knives sometimes & could'nt trust myself to be super careful. dropped a murray carter kitchen knife in the sink A while back & popped the point off. no big deal on a vege knife but if hard steel can pop from a 14 in. drop what can you expect from ceramics.maybe these knives could be of use in a lab research facility.