” Of course, ceramic knives get dull over time and need to be sharpened”

I have bought a ceramic knife. I‘ve used it on a daily basis and was happy until the day when I realised that the blade is not as sharp as before. When I looked carefulLy on the knife, I saw some little chips on it:

I started to think – is there some possibility of sharpening my ceramic knife or should I buy a new one?

To buy a new ceramic knife due to loss of sharpness, it’s not the best idea.

To sharpen ceramic knives you can also either use the professional sharpening service- but there is a time and money factor. Or to send this knife to the manufacturer for sharpening it .

Actually – it’s also not for free. At least you need to pay the shipping fees and wait in some cases several weeks until your sharpened knife will return back.

I started to think about the cheapest and fastest way to sharpen ceramic knives by myself.

From the experiences with the stainless steel knives I know, it’s not easy at all to sharpen the knives manually. At least you need sharpening tools to do that. Especially for sharpening ceramic knives you need diamond sharpening stones or diamond sharpening rod.

Manual sharpening is a quite big challenge also for skilled persons (also for me). First you need to decide which of these tools is the best for your knife, you need to know what pressure to use and under what angle to sharpen the knife. Also the skill, patience and firm hands are important. With some wrong strokes you can destroy the knife even more.

I would say manual sharpening is like a grinding college. Good just for people who have time or need some kind of meditation:)

FEW WORDS ABOUT CERAMIC KNIVES

” Ceramic is the second hardest material, but very fragile….”

The manual sharpening could be a problem in regard to the material the ceramic knives are made of. Ceramic knives have blades made of high-tech ceramic (also known as zirconia), which is the second hardest material , right after diamond. On Mohs scale of mineral hardness – ceramic has hardness of 8.5 (diamond of 10, steel of 8). So these knives can be sharpened just against something that is harder than ceramic is.

So if you make some mistake when sharpening with these diamond tools, much more damage could be raised on the knife then by manual sharpening the steel knife. Some other additional stroke and you can easily get unwanted chips on your knife.

EASIEST WAY OF CERAMIC KNIFE SHARPENING

I personally prefer another alternative of how to sharpen ceramic knives – the diamond sharpener. You can choose either between handheld/manual knife sharpener:

• the sharpening is performed with manual pulling the knife towards to you
• the biggest advantage of this kind of sharpener is – portable, simple design, and affordable price
• but -with incorrect technique of sharpening with this sharpener you can cause more harm than good.

Here I made TESTING of one universal kitchen version of manual sharpener

Or you could choose the electric knife sharpener – the sharpener with battery or electric power. I personally prefer this one. It‘s the easiest way of sharpening your ceramic knife. It’s not just for professionals, but for all people who wants to get perfect sharp edges for their knives just in few seconds.

On the market, there are many ceramic knife sharpeners. The usability of sharpener mainly determines the design of sharpener.

<HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT SHARPENER?

When starting to think, which concrete ceramic sharpener to choose, there are several factors that you need to take into consideration.

• Ceramic knives could have various lengths and shapes .
• Some sharpeners are suitable just for kitchen knives, some also for other purposes (hunting etc.).
• If the blade is short and the knife has protection against finger cut. There is a need to think about a sharpener where we do not insert the blade into it. We’ll be not able to sharpen the blade in full length:

• If you have a serrated ceramic knife (for example for bread), you can’t sharpen it with a normal sharpener. Sharpening is possible just manually with diamond sharpening rod or with special sharpener with function for it.

• With the sharpeners, if it is possible to insert the blade, you need to pay attention to the cutting angle. In general, the larger the cutting angle is, the more resistant it’s against dulling.

When sharpening your ceramic knife, you need to carefully read the instructions in the sharpener guide attached with the product.

FINAL CUTTING TEST

When you finish the sharpening work you can take a test. For testing if the blade is sharp enough you can use the paper. Take a piece of paper and try to cut it with a knife. If the cut goes easily and smoothly, the knife is sharpened enough. If the knife tears paper in the cut, you must continue in knife grinding.