EDGE RETENTION/ROLLING PART II

[Rupert Lucius]

Thanks KG. Makes sense to us and perfectly in-line with our suspicions. While diamond seems certainly the abrasive of choice with ceramic, I think that ceramic and diamonds are a bad combination in this sense; Diamonds want to cut as opposed to grind in the traditional context of the word. Ceramic is so hard though that it resists cutting. Diamonds are going to win that battle but may do so in the form of "tearing" as opposed to cutting. The result is large chunks of material being removed during the sharpening process. It makes perfect sense that smaller diamond particles would result in smaller chunks of ceramic material being ripped asunder. Large chunk removal is not conducive to sharp edges. In addition, I think that two other very real impediments to ceramic edges still remain; (1) there is a very real possibility that ceramic edges sharpened to levels at or below 200-300 BESS are simply not practical edges for normal use due to the increased likelihood of chipping which brings me to the second impediment; (2) I always suspected that ceramic knife manufacturers produce  out-of-the-package blades that are relatively dull i.e. 325-450 BESS for a reason. That reason would be that duller ceramic edges have less of a propensity to chip. My hope was that a ceramic edge at 275-300 could be produced that embodied lots of "tooth" thereby compensating for the reduced sharpness level in many slicing applications. This hope seems out the window now if twenty micron abrasives must be used to achieve 300 BESS sharpness scores. 1000 grit  doesn't leave much "tooth". 150-180 grit does (at least in a steel knife). 

Having said all that I still think that ceramic knives have their place in the world's home kitchens and, on average, may even be the best choice. Here's why I say this; If you are able to find a home chef who actually makes an attempt to sharpen, the attempt will likely be made with a counter-top electric sharpener. Perfectly executed and on a very good day that electric sharpener may be able to turn out a 300 edge. If I was reduced to cutting with 300 edges in the kitchen I'd just as soon be using a ceramic blade as opposed to a steel one because the steel edge will measure 370 within a half-hour's use and the ceramic will still be at or near 300. The steel edge could  be back to 300 before the next use but almost no one is going to take 10 seconds time to straighten the edge before each use. Instead they'll start cutting with the, now, 370 steel edge and by the end of the current food preparation session it will be 400 (roll rate slows as the roll increases) and so on and so on. For those who do not attempt and become fairly proficient at sharpening? Two years later their nice Wusthof steel knife edge will measure 1200 - 1400 and that's just the way it goes. If you'd purchased a $15.00 ceramic you could have likely enjoyed a years worth of nearly effortless cutting and slicing and then tossed it (accumulated chips and all) and gotten a new one.

So there you have it - ceramic versus steel in the home kitchen as seen by Mike Brubacher.

Note: Much of the above opinion is based on research that has yet to be conducted and evidence that has not been presented so I hereby reserve the future right to do a complete and total flip-flop on the matter once I'm proven wrong.

Again our Master is "spot on".

Rupert