What makes ceramic knives so special?
Ceramic knives were first developed and used in Japan in the 1980s. They soon found their way to Europe and became increasingly popular. This is because ceramic knives have a few advantages over their steel counterparts.
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The biggest advantage (and at the same time disadvantage) is the particularly high Rockwell-Hardness (HRC) of the blade. Steel knives have hardnesses that start at 50-52 HRC for cheap knives and can reach up to 65-67 HRC for very good and expensive knives.
Even inexpensive ceramic knives already have hardnesses of around 60 HRC, which corresponds to quite good metal blades. High-quality ceramic knives with a hardness of 67 HRC can even outperform exorbitantly expensive knives with steel blades. As a result, they generally remain sharp for a very long time.
Why do most amateur and professional chefs still prefer to use steel knives?
The reason lies in the advantage of the disadvantage already mentioned. This is because high hardness automatically goes hand in hand with high brittleness. If the cutting edge gradually breaks away, even the highly prized ceramic knife quickly becomes very blunt and has to be sharpened - sometimes at great expense.
Or the knife slips out of your hand, falls to the floor and simply breaks in two. No amount of sharpening will help.
Due to this characteristic, these knives are usually limited to short versions, such as all-purpose knife or paring knives with a rounded blade tip. This is where the chances of survival are greatest. Cleavers would obviously be of little use.
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On the other hand, ceramic knives are particularly light due to their material and therefore very easy to handle, which makes them particularly suitable for processing vegetables and boneless meat.
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The third major advantage over steel blades is their resistance to corrosion. Ceramic blades do not rust and are resistant to acids such as those found in some types of fruit and vegetables.
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Ceramic is also absolutely chemically pure. Steel is alloyed with various additives such as
nickel, chromium, cobalt and copper. These can cause allergic reactions such as skin rashes or itching. This cannot happen with ceramic, which is why ceramic knives are highly recommended for allergy sufferers, provided you don't want to have to deal with hundreds of different types of steel. -
And they are very easy to clean as the surface is very smooth and, as described above, does not rust or corrode.
How do you sharpen ceramic blades?
As ceramic knives have extremely hard blades, they can only be sharpened with diamond grinding units, -grinding stones or rods. naturally also offers diamond sharpening units in addition to ceramic grinding units, which are NOT(!) suitable for sharpening ceramic blades.
As ceramic blades are not serrated, sharpening with our knife sharpeners such as the Curve, A4 and A4 Elite or the
Xtreme Edge is very straightforward. Simply insert the diamond sharpening units with 325 grit and start sharpening.
What should I bear in mind when resharpening?
Even though nothing can go wrong when sharpening with our V-Sharp knife sharpeners, you should proceed carefully and slowly with ceramic knives due to the non-breakable blade. Even more so than with other knives, it is important that the blade is in full contact with the blade guide and that a constant but not excessive pressure is applied during sharpening.
Most ceramic knives have a grinding angle of grinding angle of 20 degrees, which must be observed.
If the cutting edge is very dull or even chipped, you should use 325 grit. You will probably have to pass the blade through the sharpener 10 to 20 times.
With so many repetitions, it is advisable to check in between to make sure that possible breakages have already been levelled out and to wipe the blade with a damp cloth and dry it again so that the abrasion does not damage the blade during further sharpening.
Grit 1000 is best suited for light re-sharpening of knives. As a rule, 5 repetitions are sufficient.
Which one is right for me?
