How to sharpen a ceramic knife at home?

Ceramic knives are not the cheapest of pleasure, and they serve less than usual, but despite this, they are gaining popularity among consumers. After all, the cost of their acquisition is more than paid for by the convenience of work and the quality of cutting. Among other things, their design compares favorably with the usual ones. However, these are still knives, and therefore, sooner or later, they are also dull. How can I sharpen a ceramic knife at home without ruining the blade?

Pros and cons of ceramic blades

This necessary kitchen tool is highly appreciated not only by the housewives, but also by professional chefs, because he has a lot of undeniable advantages over the usual metal:

• The increased hygienic properties. Ceramics do not absorb odors, respectively, does not transfer them to products during subsequent work. It does not oxidize, that is, there are no problems with rust and metallic taste of products.
• The quality of the cut. Ceramic tools, due to their impeccable sharpness, make it possible to gently cut products into the thinnest slices, without crushing bread or crushing the pulp of fruits or vegetables.
• The increased ease. This quality is all the more important the more often and intensively you have to use a knife.
• Long sharpness. High-quality ceramics require sharpening much less often than metal. With proper use, ceramic knives have to be sharpened quite rarely; accordingly, their service life will not be further reduced.
• The knife has an attractive design, retaining its original appearance for a long time.

However, the main quality of ceramics - increased density - also generates the main disadvantages of the knife:

• It is completely not elastic, that is, when falling or hitting it easily forms chips, it can even break.
• Breakage can be caused by an attempt to chop something solid with such an instrument: unfrozen foods, bones from meat or fish, nuts.
• Due to the fragility of the ceramic knife, it is not recommended to work on a very hard cutting board (for example, glass).

If you have recently bought such a knife, use it very carefully and carefully: the lightness and “toy” look removes a sense of danger, which is why some housewives, having lost their vigilance, are easily injured by an extremely sharp edge.

How can I sharpen ceramic knives?

Any material can be machined with a material with a higher hardness. As you know, ceramics have a much greater hardness than ordinary steel. Accordingly, it is simply impossible to grind any ceramic knife with any tools or devices for sharpening metal blades. To use for this purpose you need only special devices made of materials coated with diamond spraying. It can be:

• Sharpeners for ceramics (conventional mechanical or electrical), which can adjust the angle of processing, as well as ensure that the sharpening line corresponds to the smallest fluctuations in thickness along the length of the blade (which ceramic blades always have) thanks to maintaining the same distance between the grinding discs. It is important to remember that a ceramic knife is most often sharpened only on one side, and much less often on two. Therefore, choosing a grinding device, it is necessary to proceed, first of all, from what method of sharpening the blade is intended for. At the same time, some (very expensive) models are produced that allow sharpening ceramics in both ways.
• Universal grinding machines - provided that a simple grinding wheel will be replaced by a diamond (or rather, at least two - with different grit).
• Grinding stones (whetstones). This option requires increased laboriousness, since the force of pressure, work speed, and also the angle of sharpening have to be determined and controlled “by eye”.
• Musat - tools that look and feel like files. Musati is used for easy sharpening, when the knife is still slightly dull, as well as for the final “refinement” of the blade after the main sharpening, in order to remove nicks.
• Paste. It is also designed for easy blade renewal or for final grinding.

Buy tools for sharpening ceramic knives with the knife itself, even if you don’t have to sharpen it soon.

The process of sharpening ceramics requires good dexterity, otherwise there is a high risk of thinning the blade, or even “rewarding” it with chinks. Therefore, if there is doubt about your own competence, it will be better to take the ceramic product to the workshop.

What is special about sharpening ceramic blades?

The first and main feature is time. Ceramics sharpen much longer than steel, because because of its fragility, it requires delicate uniform pressure. This is absolutely true with any sharpening method. The following are the features of different methods.

• Sharpeners.

Electric sharpeners will cope faster and better, since the disks in them rotate themselves, providing sharpening at the same angle (fixed or custom). The user only needs to slowly advance the blade - from the handle to the tip. Good sharpeners are equipped with cells for sharpening, finishing and final grinding. In mechanical sharpening occurs only due to the friction of the knife created by a person’s hand on the discs, therefore, it takes even longer.

• Grinding machines.

If the farm has a conventional grinding machine, it is quite suitable for sharpening ceramics. But, as already mentioned, under one indispensable condition: it is necessary to acquire at least two diamond blades having different grain sizes: with a larger one for sharpening, with a finer one for grinding.

To sharpen ceramic knives at home, be sure to set the machine to the lowest speed. To maintain the same angle, you will have to install an appropriate locking device. It is important that during operation, the knife blade is pressed firmly against the disk, not tearing off until the end of the process. Otherwise, microblows from every contact of the blade with the disk may damage it.

• Whetstone

This is the most time-consuming and unreliable in terms of results. When using such a bar, the result depends only on the person: his ability to hold the blade at one angle (you need to sharpen it by moving the blade over the stone, and not vice versa!), In one direction, with the same pressing force, performing smooth, uniform, continuous movements.

Before sharpening a ceramic blade with a diamond stone, the grinding tool itself needs to be soaked in cold water for 10-30 minutes. Directly in the process of working with ceramics, it is also periodically wetted. From the handle to the tip of the blade (that is, only in one direction!), The knife must go through the stone many times until the formation of uniform burrs that grind when the blade is turned on the other side.

If the knife is double-sided, the procedure is repeated from each edge in turn until the same burrs are formed.

The final sharpness is given when grinding with a stone with a lower grit, musat or diamond grinding paste.

• Musat and grinding paste.

They are used when you only need to sharpen the knife slightly, and also to give the already sharpened knife the final sharpness and smoothness. The difference between these methods is that they do not move the knife over the tool, but rather the tool (or a grinding device made of rough leather) along the knife. Only a layer of paste is applied to the blade - in the second case.

So, for sharpening ceramic knives on their own, there are several options that differ by a greater or lesser risk of damaging the blade. But since ceramics is a very moody and demanding material, with the slightest doubt about one's own competence it is better to invest in a workshop than a new knife.

And so that he does not dull longer, it is extremely important to follow the recommendations for use, care and storage, which are given in the instructions for the tool.