How to sharpen a ceramic knife at home

Ceramic knives today are becoming increasingly popular. Moreover, preference is given to them not so much by the hostess, who for the work in the kitchen necessarily need a sharp knife, as the owners, lazy to sharpen metal knives every week.

Ceramic knives have high strength and blunt much slower than metal ones.

But, although these knives do not require frequent sharpening, due to a long period of operation or due to improper use, sooner or later there is a problem how to sharpen a ceramic knife. To grind a metal blade, it is enough to have an ordinary abrasive wheel at home, this tool is unsuitable for sharpening a ceramic blade.

How to sharpen a ceramic knife?

It has long been known that it is possible to process solid material only with the help of an even harder material. Since the cutting products made of ceramics by hardness are second only to diamond, they are used for sharpening:

• diamond-coated special sharpener;
• grindstone;
• special musat.

It is better to perform such work in a specialized workshop. In it, the blade will be sharpened correctly, and they will not remove the excess, thereby shortening its service life. But, having the necessary sharpening, you can sharpen it at home. It is better for such a case to purchase a special sharpener. It is not only possible to grind ceramics, but also to adjust the angle of sharpening, as well as get rid of small chips.

For sharpening a knife, you will need musat, a grinding stone, or a diamond-sharpened sharpener.

In addition, most of these tools have the function of automatically determining the optimal distance between the grinding elements. This allows them to automatically adjust to the thickness, which fluctuates in the ceramic blade, albeit imperceptibly to the eye. This adjustment allows you to sharpen the cutting edge evenly and efficiently.

You can sharpen a ceramic knife on a conventional grinding machine, replacing the abrasive wheel with a diamond-coated wheel. Manually, such work can be done on grinding stones, and in order to fix the blade of the knife, you can use musat - a rod made of hard materials, inserted into the handle, but not ordinary, but special, with a diamond coating.

Features sharpening a knife do it yourself

Sharpening on a grinding machine should be carried out necessarily at low speeds. If you make it at home, in no case can you press the blade with all your strength against the surface of the circle. But too free to keep him too. It is better and safer for the blade to hold it in such a way that it is constantly pressed against the working surface of the sharpener, and not jumped up, coming off and touching it again.

If you look closely at the edge of the ceramic knife, you can see that in the section it looks a bit convex. And since you need to make a minimum of effort when you press the sharpener, be prepared for the fact that the process itself will last much longer than that of a metal blade.

The technique of sharpening a ceramic blade is somewhat different from working with a metal blade. Holding the handle in your hands, the blade near the handle should be lightly pressed to the rotating circle and slowly move it to the tip of the tip. One pass is not limited to sharpened.

The scheme of sharpening ceramic knife.

You need to walk on it with a blade at least 5-6 times. Then flip to the other side and repeat all over again. Only in this case, you can be sure that the knife will acquire the necessary sharpness, and on its blade there will be no chatter and other damages.

The sharpening of a ceramic knife can be done manually. For this purpose, special grinding stones with different grain sizes are used. If the final goal is to edit and polish the cutting edge, then it is performed on a grindstone with a grain size not lower than 6000.

To get rid of small chinks, cut the blade on a grindstone with a grain size of 3000, and sharpen the cutting edge on a stone with a grain size not lower than 5000. Whatever grain size the grinding stones have, they must be damp.

Therefore, immediately before starting work, they must be held for 5-10 minutes in water, and in the process of the work itself, periodically moistened with water. To sharpen the blade, they are slowly and smoothly driven over the grindstone, while the blade must always rub against the surface of the stone, but with minimal pressure.

You can sharpen a ceramic blade on one or both sides. Double-sided blades are more convenient, since both right-handed and left-handed can use them. If a one-sided blade is sharpened, then first you need to wedge that side that protrudes a wedge until the cutting edge takes a uniform burr, and then grind this burr by turning the blade on the second side.

The double-sided blade is ground on the same principle: first they grind one side of a coarse-grained stone until they reach the degree of a burr, and then they spend the same amount of time on the other side. The final sharpness of the blade is attached by polishing the blade on a fine-grained stone.

Sharpening the blade, whether using a sharpening machine or a grinding stone, you need to carefully ensure that the initial angle of grinding is maintained after the work is completed, otherwise the blade will not cut well, no matter how sharp it is.

A ceramic blade can be sharpened only a limited number of times.

Moreover, despite all the hardness, it is very fragile, and if handled carelessly, it can easily break. Therefore, in order to prolong its service life, it is necessary to carefully follow the instructions for use.