Sharpening Ceramic blades

[ken vanderhamm]

Has anyone found a way to sharpen the ceramic blades to hair whittling sharpness? If so, how do you do it with the WE? I can do it easily with steel, but the ceramics have me stumped.Thanks.

[Mark76]

This topic has been discussed before, only I cannot find it anymore, since the search function cannot distinguish between ceramic blades and ceramic stones – Clay? 😉 ). Anyone?

What I recall from those topics:
– use diamonds only (diamond stones or stropping compounds), since ceramic is very hard
– use high grits only (1000 grit +, I recall) in order not to chip the blade
– be gentle, very gentle
– it’s hard to get a ceramic blade as sharp as a proper steel blade

Here is a link to a blog post about it (including a vid): https://jendeindustries.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/worlds-first-ceramic-knife-shave-video/

Success! And please let us know what your results are.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Mark76]

Oh, and by the way: welcome! :cheer:

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[ken vanderhamm]

Thanks for the response Mark, and the neat video. I will have to wait for the gen111 before I can reply, but I will. Thanks again,

Ken

[wickededge]

Has anyone found a way to sharpen the ceramic blades to hair whittling sharpness? If so, how do you do it with the WE? I can do it easily with steel, but the ceramics have me stumped.Thanks.

Welcome! Mark is right – high grit diamond only, very light pressure. I would add that you’ll want to keep the stones a little damp to keep the ceramic dust from clogging the spaces between the diamonds. At 1000# or even with our 3um plates, you won’t get shaving sharp. The knife will be very effective but it probably won’t shave. To get it hair whittling sharp, you’ll want the lapping films so the best accessory would be the 3 Micron Diamond Stone / Blank Glass Platens Pack[/url] plus some lapping film in 1.0um, 0.5um and possibly 0.1um.

-Clay

1 user thanked author for this post.

Gazillion

[tcmeyer]

Great info gents, but what can you do if there’s a small chip in the blade?

I’ve tried this before and made zero progress on the chip even tho I was already breaking the rules by using my 400’s. Out of frustration, I called up the 200’s and in one stroke completely destroyed the edge. The chips I produced with the 200 were bigger than the chip I was trying to remove. I took it to my trash can and hid it down deep so I wouldn’t have to look at it.

[Gib Curry]

Great info gents, but what can you do if there’s a small chip in the blade?

I’ve tried this before and made zero progress on the chip even tho I was already breaking the rules by using my 400’s. Out of frustration, I called up the 200’s and in one stroke completely destroyed the edge. The chips I produced with the 200 were bigger than the chip I was trying to remove. I took it to my trash can and hid it down deep so I wouldn’t have to look at it.

Welcome…. This sounds like my one and only attempt to sharpen a ceramic paring knife. Got it cheap at Goodwill with a small chip in it.

After playing out the scenario you describe, I pulled the blade back out of the garbage, applied some Sharpie and looked at it closely under the cheap USB microscope….

The chip was actually the manifestation at the edge of a nearly invisible crack that went halfway through the blade. I would have never, ever gotten the chip out.

And….. I haven’t tried a ceramic blade again since………

You’re gonna love it here….

~~~~
For Now,

Gib

Φ

"Everyday edge for the bevel headed"

"Things work out best for those who make the best out of the way things work out."

[ken vanderhamm]

I put a small nick on purpose on a cheap ceramic knife I own just to see if I could get it out. I tried two ways, one with a paper wheel charged with aluminum oxide and one on a ( this might be a cuss word in here ) 320 and 600 aluminum oxide belt grinder 2×42”. Both methods got it out. It was a little slow but after maybe 20 passes it was gone and the blade had no chip. In my jewelry business I use an 8” round diamond plate in various grits, 180 up to 1200 and I have sharpened it on them ( only using the 600 – 1200 though ) but only to hair cutting ability, not hair whittling sharpness. I look forward in trying it on the Gen111 sharpener, I’m sure that would remove any nicks as long as the finer grits are used and hopefully will get it to hair chopping sharpness as I progress to the .10 micron size diamond paste. Good luck.

[Josh]

Well gents, I have one for you… it is pushing the level of my skill for sure. I will get pics up soon…. while i do not normally sharpen ceramics, a previous customer sent me one out of the blue. it is a folder and the edge looks like he tried chopping the corner of a steel block w/ chips up to 3/32″ deep and 1/8″ wide all down the blade. Pics soon to come.

[tcmeyer]

Lordy Josh, that’s got to be ugly. That said, I’ll be most interested to hear if you make progress with a belt or wheel. Do you have a diamond wheel?

[Josh]

Lordy Josh, that’s got to be ugly. That said, I’ll be most interested to hear if you make progress with a belt or wheel. Do you have a diamond wheel?

No I don’t…. i do have a CBN one though. This will probably mostly be done by hand.

[Daniel maloon]

I think I’d just send it back lol.

[tcmeyer]

I was thinking that the only practical way to remove that much ceramic would be on a wet, low-speed diamond wheel. .Worksharp 3000 is a horizontal wheel version, which comes with two 6″ diameter glass wheels and runs at 580 rpm. You could put diamond film on four sides, using 8.5 X 11 sheets. $250.

My brother picked up an old clunker with a horizontal wheel from a Habitat store. It had a diamond wheel which used the same diamond plating as WE. I never saw it run, but I think it might have been a lapidary wheel. I used one once in 1964 when visiting my uncle in Bellingham, WA. I’m thinking it ran closer to 100 rpm, but from googling lapidary rpm the results say 580 is about right.

[tuffy braithwaite]

the last one i tried never seemed to get very sharp and it wore down the diamond paddles bad.
two weeks ago i found and bought some diamond belts, but they only come in somewhat odd lengths, nothing in 1 x 42 – i ended up with 1 x 30 for the harbor freight job.

now i need a blade to test them on – been shopping thrifts, but no luck.
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[Josh]

Finished it up! Hair popping sharp now… easily shaves arm hair.

[Author]

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