Ceramic Folders, Has anyone tried to sharpen them on a WE?

[M1rrorEdge]

This is exactly what I was looking for Boker Plus Ani-Grav Knife !  This is a “brilliant” black ceramic “gentleman’s folder” that looks great, is very light in the hand and is scary sharp right out of the box.  This would be a great gift for anyone who loves knives.  You must treat it with respect as it will chip or break if abused or dropped.  This is my new every day carry knife and I use it for all my simple daily cutting tasks (Three months now).  I wouldn’t use it for anything more “extreme” but it wasn’t made for anything extreme.  It shouldn’t need sharpening for a long time, however, Boker with gladly sharpen it for you when it does.  A true “professional” sharpener with the correct tools (I.E. the WE)  and patience can sharpen this and any other ceramic blade, however, it will cost you more due to the time it takes because of its hardness.  This knife should nicely find a home in everyone’s collection.  Not being paid to say this, I’m just really impressed and needed to share my experience.  The box it came in is outstanding for gift giving with a great first impression.  The price point is perfect too $54.00.   Benefits;  Will not rust, stays sharp longer, non-magnetic /Non-Electrically conductive blade, scratch resistant, won’t alter the flavor of fruit or veggies (No metal taste).  If used for pruning your garden the cuts will heal faster.  In the kitchen, fruits and veggies will stay fresh longer (Slow browning or oxidation).  I can’t say enough, you must give a ceramic folding knife a try and this one is a winner!  Has anyone on the forum tried to sharpen one of these?  What did you experience?  I have four ceramic knives now and I love them (Three folders and one Kyocera for the kitchen).  My wife loves them too.  I also now have two other folding knives (A cheap Fruit Peeler from China (Click Here $7.95) and This nice one from Russia made in China (Click Here).

Eddie Kinlen
M1rror Edge Sharpening Service, LLC
+1(682)777-1622

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[Mark76]

Be careful. These knives are very brittle. I usually start at 800 grit and then use the 1000/1500 grit stones and lapping films for further refinement.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[tuffy braithwaite]

i for 1 have not, but when i worked farmers markets with WE i tried to sharpen some ceramic kitchen knives………i even asked on here back then maybe in 2014………this is just my opinion:

i would probably be paddling still……3 years of paddling ……20 sets or more of paddles wasted on one knife……..diamonds wore completely off.  if someone brings me one, i say NO SIR OR MAM………..i hope someone responds with the answer you are looking for.

Ceramic very hard

they have diamond belts available now………….i would not even consider those.

i will be waiting for an answer like yourself on here……….

[wickededge]

Ceramic knives pose a unique challenge for sure but it’s pretty easy to overcome. The first thing is the be sure not to reach the apex with coarse diamonds. Only do that with the finer stones. The second thing is to keep your diamond stones wet so that the powder created by abrading the ceramic does not load up the stones. The bevel shaping process goes much more quickly that way. The third thing is that you need very fine diamonds to produce a good edge on ceramic blades, so you’d want the 1500# diamond stones plus the diamond lapping strips. The finer you go with the lapping films, the sharper the edge will be. Once you get under 1 micron, you can start to shave with the blade. If you take it all the way to 0.1 microns, you should shave very easily and smoothly. My recent attempts have been very successful and didn’t take too long to complete. All in all, it took longer to get a razor sharp edge on the ceramic than it does on steel, but it didn’t take forever either. I’ll have to set a timer sometime to test it out.

-Clay

[tcmeyer]

My limited experience (playing around with sharpening two ceramic chef’s knives) taught me that restoring a worn edge is possible, but that you need to keep a minimum grit level of 800 to avoid  fracturing the edge beyond repair.  In my case, I attempted to repair edge damage (chips) but failed miserably.  The 800+ grits will not remove enough material to establish a new edge apex.  Lower grits will make it much worse.

So Mark’s statement of starting with 800 is confirmed by my experience.  And Tuffy’s statement that one ceramic knife could wear the diamond grits from your stones sounds to me to be reasonable.

I have some diamond polishing compounds (for use on a buffing wheel) I bought from Ken Schwartz.  I suspect that there might be some promise there.   Unlike a diamond platen, the buffer removes material faster and the grit can be easily restored.  Might be worth a try.

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