I posted this in the welcome mat earlier in error. Can the WEPS sharpen a Ceramic knife? Can clamping shatter the blade? Any help is appreciated.

It's OK, I deleted it for you now that you have the post in the correct place.


Cheers
Leo

Ceramic blade? Yes. You use the diamond stones and strops. With the stones, you should use very light pressure and keep the stones wet with a solution of water and a drop of dish soap. I use a small spray bottle (3 oz) and a drop of Dawn. It helps lubricate the stones along the brittle ceramic edge and it also keeps the stones from loading up with all the ceramic powder that develops. You'll get best results around 23-25 degrees, finishing on the 1000 grit diamonds and then the 5/3.5 strops. No issues with clamping.

NeverDull wrote:

Clay,
I have followed your instructions above and cannot seem to get these Kyocera blades razor sharp!?! They were very (VERY) dull when they came to me; the progression I went thru is as follows... 100/200, 400/600 and then 800/1000.
Never did pull a burr at start (w/ 100), thought maybe since ceramic, burr would not form?
Shall I go (back) to 50/80?
I believe my pressure is OK... not too light.
THANKS--

Hey Krystina,

Ceramic knives are very different. You don't want to use the coarse grit stones unless absolutely necessary and they'll never get super sharp like steel does, they're just too brittle and won't hold an acute angle without chipping. When you do ceramics, you won't be able to draw a burr, ceramic doesn't behave that way, so the best way to make sure you're reaching the edge is with a marker, checking to see that all the marker is removed by the stones. Light pressure is imperative. You can use the strops and finer pastes/sprays to greatly improve the edge quality. If you have a loupe or magnifying glass, you can inspect the edge for chipping - from there you can decide if you need to put in more time with the fine strops.

sharperthannew wrote:

will do and f/u with results!
Tx--

I'm quite interested in the results as well... I actually have two ceramic knives that I've been meaning to work on w/ the WEPS, although my kyocera blade isn't dull enough yet. The second one is one of Boker's ceramic folders... which I actually did attempt shortly after I got the WEPS without too much success (think I was using too much pressure). And your right Clay, they are a totally different animal. Absolutely no burr, and they must be really refined to get it "hair popping" sharp. I.e. I can take a regular steel blade and have it pop hairs all day at the 400 grit stock stone (you probably could even the 100/200 if you did it right) but even at 1k it won't do this on a ceramic blade...

If anyone gets a hair popping edge on a ceramic knife, please keep us posted on the process

I actually went out and bought a ceramic knife just to try sharpening it. But like Josh said it's not dull enough yet. The clerk where I bought it told me all about how they had to be "laser sharpened"
I told him all about marketing hype. I tried to be very polite about it, but I don't think he appreciated me correcting him.

Mark M.

I'll post some pictures later on this week (I hope) of sharpening ceramic blades.

Razoredge wrote:


That's pretty funny about the "laser sharpening" I know for a fact that Kyocera and Stone River use high speed diamond wheels.