Do ceramic knives need to be sharpened?

They say that knives cannot be given as gifts. A friend gave me a ceramic knife. She said that this was not a gift, but just like that. I couldn’t be happy alone when I received such a knife from my aunt.

I continued our “mini-flash mob”: on occasion, I ran to my sister and grabbed her a sharp ceramic knife. I told her how easily they could cut literally anything!

A week later, my sister called to clarify whether neither I nor my friend had sharpened knives. And is it necessary to sharpen them at all? In order to answer her and know for myself how to properly handle this ceramic product, I decided to study this issue.

Advantages of a ceramic knife

I won’t even talk about how a dull knife irritates a housewife - you know that yourself. This was probably one of the reasons for the popularity of knives made from special materials. Of course, this is not the same clay ceramics that is used to make tableware. Rather, it is the material that dentists work with.

Reference. The basis of ceramic instruments is zirconium dioxide. Hot sintering of zirconium powder produces a super-strong material from which blades are made.

Amazing strength is not their only advantage.

• Such a blade will not rust or scratch. Products retain their quality appearance and properties when interacting with different products.
• Smooth surface easy to wash. Caring for a knife does not cause housewives any problems.
• The weight of the tool is small, but this does not affect its strength.
• Knives are sold sharply sharpened. They retain their sharpness for a long time, allowing you to easily cut products of any structure and density.

Do ceramic knives need to be sharpened?

Of course, every housewife had sharp blades at home even before a Japanese company began producing them from zirconium alloy in 1985. True, most of them became dull rather quickly and required sharpening.

Zirconium blades stay sharp much longer. This raises questions: will it always be like this or will they also have to be sharpened?

Reference. Tools made of zirconium ceramics do not require sharpening for 1–2 years. However, the blade gradually becomes dull, like other knives.

So, dear housewives, you won’t be able to do without sharpening at all, you’ll have to sharpen it! However The processing of a zirconium blade has its own characteristics.

What to sharpen

To make it clear that special handling is a necessity, you need to pay attention to one more quality of the tool. He's fragile! Yes, yes, with all the strength of his knife the blade is easy to damage. Therefore, sharpening requires knowledge and skills.

Reference. When processing, you should maintain the existing sharpening of the blade: single-sided or double-sided.

And one more important detail is the degree of inclination of the edge of the blade. Excessive grinding can cause the sharp edge to become brittle.

To a woman

If you have to restore the sharpness of a kitchen tool yourself, you will have to take care of an assistant. In the absence of a man who can be entrusted with an important matter, A lady can only entrust sharpening to a sharpener - electric or manual.

Reference. An electric sharpener will ensure high-quality processing of the blade.She herself will determine the desired angle of inclination, quickly and efficiently complete the work.

A woman only needs to insert the knife and turn on the sharpener. It is better to perform actions following the instructions.

Working with a manual model differs only in the need to use physical force. And, of course, it will take more time.

To a man

Attempts to sharpen a tool by hand are best left to men. They can do this using different means.

Probably, we could do without this part of the text: it’s useless to give hints to a “armless” man; he’ll ruin something anyway. And the “handy one” knows everything himself and can give advice. Therefore, we will simply list what can be used to treat a zirconium surface.

Reference. To sharpen a ceramic blade, manufacturers recommend using diamond-coated tools or surfaces.

In addition to mechanical and electric sharpeners, there are several other options suitable for the job:

• electric sandpaper;
• diamond paste;
• diamond block;
• diamond-coated machine.

Get started if you already have similar experience. If not, practice with regular steel blades. Take the ceramic ones to a special workshop. Or buy a sharpener. It can be useful to several families at once, so you can purchase it by paying for the purchase together.