What makes ceramic knives make. Ceramic knives: Frequently Asked Questions
2015-11-25
Date: 25 11 2015
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Good afternoon dear readers! Today we will talk about the subjects without any kitchen in the world. Our conversation will be about knives. Heroes of our today's story - Ceramic knives. About them they remember when they get tired of angry, on how quickly the metal blades are stupid, and anxiety in the "killed" iron vitamins covers the whole of our essence.
At least commercials and stale about the fact that the ceramic blades are fantastically sharp, eco-friendly and fantastically beautiful, many skeptical comrades continue to be buried that it makes no sense to throw out big money for a new-fashioned piece, which is even afraid of the Persian carpet. They say, much better to buy a quality knife made of metal. Excellent, there is a motive to figure out their differences!I will tell you about the history of the appearance of knives from ceramics, their positive and negative qualities, how to choose them correctly, use, to sharpen. 
How to eat ceramic knives
The ceramic knife was invented by the Japanese, but at the same time it should be noted that Soviet scientists in the eighties of the last century produced a "eternal" razor with such a blade. Unfortunately, this invention was put on a distant corner, all the applause again crushed the Japanese, the laurels got them. Well, here, nothing can be done here ... Literally some 25 years ago, only professionals used such a tool. Sushi manufacturing experts were happy to use the wonder for making their dishes, because ceramics does not give a taste of a metal in the gentle taste of samurai yoke. Solding knives from ceramics, steel not so long ago. 
But immediately began to be faked by enterprising delints from "Podnebyss".
A little about production
Ceramic blade is a high-tech item. The name "ceramic" refers not to the directly clinch, but to the technology of its manufacture - agglomeration and burning. To speak exactly, glamorous knives have blades of zirconium dioxide. I think that all the subtleties of the production process for housewives (and just cook for lovers) will be little interesting. We only want to notice that during the manufacture, thick, almost transparent plates from sintered for special zirconium technology are sharpened by specialists manually, imagine! Man flies into space, andknife sharpening produced manually, high from hereprice . To the touch, the cutting edge may seem stupid, but this is a deceptive feeling. The blade from the ceramics is much thicker from the metal, it is specially sharpened under a stupid defined angle. If you need, a paper sheet on weight ceramics will not be worse than metal.
Ergonomics and aesthetics
Ceramic beauties, as a rule, are made in their favorite style "High Tech". They look futurist, perfectly fit into the interior of the kitchen of modern design. Taking the blade in the hand, you instantly feel his practicality: the line of handles, shape, structure, blade coating - everything emphasizes its feature, irreducacy. The handle will impecuously fall into the palm, so that cooking in the kitchen will deliver a lot of pleasures. The handles are of plastic, rubberized plastic, which does not slide, from silicone. Working with the Japanese invention is unusually comfortable and pleasant. See how it is easy and easy to cook. 
Black, White: What is the difference
Color gamut in which kitchen blades are made of ceramics, no variety is not different. They are only black and white. 
Black differ greater strength. Professional chefs, specialists in the field of "Sushi Making" are chosen for work. For everyday cooking at home, you can advise a cheaper white version, especially since it is not much inferior in the quality of the dark. You can, of course, have a black, if you are a steep aeteful gourmet and often cut with thin transparent slices of the same thickness of the hoveed membrane in large quantities. Here my tips are invalid - take only black! Just kidding, of course. Buy the one that will be preferable for you. Something mood today is some kind of little sarcastic, sorry, friends! Yesterday I tried to explain to the designer, which kind of kitchen I imagine and why. And he decided it was probably that I was the secret grandchildren of the Rothschild niece and presented such an account for his services that I still could not move.
We will not compare Mountainbike with a pleasure bike
Reflecting what better to buy Metal or ceramics knives, too, how to compare the mountain bike and the one you ride in the park. It is impossible to say that one is good, and the other is bad. These things are different, they are intended for different purposes. Yes,ceramics knife You will not be able to cut the beef bones, they do not open the cans, do not open the bottle of beer, with which the metal fellow will easily cope. "Ceramics" is a narrow special kitchen specialist. Its purpose is to cut into thin slices of fish, a fuel part of meat, vegetables for salad, bread. So it will be used and we will be happiness.
The main advantages and advantages of ceramic knives
Cons: truthfully, without excessive dramatization
- Fragility. Ceramics of the harder metal, but its strength is much lower. It may be broken even when falling on the carpet. Small blade length (up to 16.5 cm), as the longer, the fragile. It is not recommended to buy a clinic of more than 20 cm long (such are already considered too long).
- Destruction with lateral loads on the cutting edge. Ceramics is very afraid of "wetting" during cutting. It is impossible to remove meat from the bone, for example, since the blade can simply split where the metal is simply deformed. But in order to exist rules of operation and the appointment of the subject - follow them and everything will be fine. We will not exactly nails with rashpil ...
- They are afraid of sharp temperature changes. Although I am sure that you will not heat it on fire, and then omitted in ice water, remembering how much the blood earned for it was given.
- Cannot scare kitchen boards. Esually, if it is neme and you want to clean the "grandfather" way, then you also acquire a knife for these purposes too, "Dedovsky", and not faded.
- Do not suit for cutting solids. For this there are metallic - each has its own "paraffia".
- The blade should not be crushed, beat the plastle. Otherwise, it will simply fall from the handle.
- Cannot be used on porcelain and glass boards.
Operating Rules
Have you already purchased this fashionable useful thing? I bought here.
Ceramic knives invented in Japan 20 years ago, but they only came to the World Market 15 years later, and in our country appeared quite recently.
Snegow-white and iscin-black, unusually light and elegant, they like hostess externally, but cause a lot of questions, the main of which is: "From what miracle material is a knife blade?"
Naturally, it is not necessary to compare it with ceramics for VAZ, toilet bowls and tiles in the bathroom. They are united by only similar manufacturing process - baking in the furnace.
The raw materials for blades is a zirconium powder, which at a very large temperature (about + 1600º C) melts and turns into a superproof zirconium dioxide material (ZrO2). According to the mineralogical scale of the hardness of MOOS materials, the hardness of the diamond is 10 units, Corunda 9 units, and zirconium dioxide is 8.0-8.6 units. This modern high-tech material is already used in dentistry, jewelry manufacturing (familiar to the girls a diamond substitute - fianit), in air and mechanical engineering, etc. The term "ceramic" according to its origin relates more to the production technology of products from zirconium dioxide - i.e. To the very procedure for the manufacture of knives - burning or sintering.
These knives are usually produced by dry pressing of zirconium dioxide crystals and subsequent firing. From the resulting material make the blade, dragging the edges with a grinding disk with a diamond spraying. Ceramics based on zirconium dioxide is distinguished by a unique ability to increase its mechanical strength under the influence of loads.
However, even sharp ceramic helpers are not always perfect. For example, in China, such copies are made according to accelerated technology: they are less spent in the furnace, therefore, they are more fragile than their congregates from the country of the rising sun. The color of the bright knives of the Middle Kingdom is also different: if the Japanese has a snow-white, then the Chinese have a grayish-yellowish, which speaks of lower quality of the raw materials.
Ceramic knives are white and black. The color of the devices depends not only on the presence of the dye, but also on the features of production technology. Dark knives spend more time in the stove, so hardness and wear resistance are higher than that of bright.
In order for a ceramic knife for a long time in the kitchen, you must follow the following rules:
1. Ceramic knife can not cut solid products (for example, bones).
2. For cutting, it is necessary to use a wooden plastic or silicone cutting board, but in no case metal, glass or ceramics.
3. Cut is needed smooth and smooth movements.
4. Green is not cut, but it cuts.
5. It is impossible to roll up with a ceramic knife, the blade may be damaged.
6. Do not beat the knife, the blade can break from the handle.
7. Do not wash the knife with detergents and in the dishwasher.
8. The knife is stored separately from all other cutlery, since when contacting with metal, the blade can begin crumbs.
9. Ceramics loves a stable room temperature, cracks appear with it with a sharp change.
10. Carefully contact the knife, do not drop it on the floor.
For the manufacture of the handles apply rubberized plastic, wood or silicone. Any material has good performance, which do not allow to slide the tool even when working with wet or oily hands. High-quality ceramic knives are distinguished by a special way to fasten the handle to the blade, they are reliably welded to it, therefore are practically monolithic. Ergonomic bending of the handle perfectly falls in his hand, providing a pleasant and convenient work with this tool.
For convenient and reliable storage, knives are equipped with special protective covers that protect the cut edge from damage. For a set of ceramic knives, a special stand is provided, in which each knife occupies a certain place.
Advantages and disadvantages
By numerous reviews of users of ceramic knives, it is difficult to make an unambiguous conclusion about their quality characteristics. Some express enthusiastic opinions and talk about the excellent cutting properties of products. An absolutely opposite opinion of users have the experience of which turned out to be negative, and their knife quickly came into disrepair.
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This article will be interested in anyone who is not indifferent to the knives and their varieties. In it, John, by YOUTUBE channel "John Heisz - I Build IT", will present you the process of manufacturing a knife from a ceramic floor tile.
Immediately I will say, it's not a simple matter and strongly depends on the selected ceramic tile. Even porcelain stoneware is very different grain.
Materials.
- a piece of ceramic tile required size
- water tank
Tools used by the author.
- Ribbon grinder
- Bulgarian with a diamond disk
- Fillet with diamond spraying
- Marker.
Manufacturing process.
So, is it possible to make a knife from the tile? John suggests that a short answer to this question will be yes, you can make a knife from the floor tiles. At the same time, it is very difficult to make it enough sharp so that he can cut. But even if you manage to make it enough sharp, the tip of the knife will not stand for a long time, because the tile is too fragile. Nevertheless, the author really wanted to do this for quite a long time, and today it came that day.
So, he has a piece of tile, from that set, which lies with him in the kitchen. This tile variety is known as porcelain. She is more solid, while the ceramic tile is hard only outside, and inside it is soft.
And then the author began to cut the workpiece with the help of an ordinary grinder with a diamond disk, which the stone, tiles and concrete perfectly cuts. As you can see, the disk produces a rather rough cut, on the turns of the portion of the tile are chipped.
The disc easily removes the tile material side part. This is the fastest way to make the initial formation of a knife descent, and here you can see that the author removes the descent on both sides, trying to make them enough thin.
John tried to sharpen the blade with the help of the leg and wetting the water. And too narrow it is impossible to take, because the edge will be too easy to cut and will be irregularities. You can see that the author turned out to be quite big chip, which could be a problem later, so he changes the strategy.
John quickly ended patience when working with Nadfil, especially since it is a little worn, although it is also used for tiles. The author will try to make the rest of the sharpening of the blade on its self-made belt grinding machine, with a 2x72 inches tape size. He has ribbons from silicon carbide, and they are used to grind glass or tiles, and the author used this method earlier to make a ring of stone, and it really worked well.
But ceramics is much more complicated. Only on the alignment of the edge of the blade, descents and elimination of chips went about twenty minutes. As a result, the necessary sharpness of the edge of the blade was obtained, although the author was worried that the chips will begin again.
It gave John confidence in working on the rest of the knife. Therefore, he smoothes a hood of a knife, a back and abdomen handles. Also, slightly tilting the edge of the footage and other parts to the surface of the ribbon, got rid of small chips.
Then the author decided that she would sharpen it in the fresh air diamond supfyl water. But as soon as he began to do it - the chipsets began instantly again. The tool is clearly not suitable for this.
Therefore, the author returned it back to the workshop, and chosen another grinding machine for further processing. This is a smaller author's machine with a liner with dimensions of 1x30 inches. And for him there is a very thin diamond tape, which the author acquired to sharpen cutters from tungsten carbide. As you see, he works very well, the author is actually surprised that the sharpening blade is obtained.
The opinion of the author is such - indeed with ceramics it is very difficult to work using a feet. Everything happens for one simple reason - you automatically work with it with it with a saw, and at the return movement it turns out chips. Perhaps not very well adjust the pressure. And on the grinding machine, the tape moves in one direction, and the contact area with it is greater.
In general, this controlled paper turned out from John.
Search for ways to create the best cutlery used in the process of cooking and consuming food, lasts many centuries and will continue in the future. At the dawn of mankind, sharpened stones and shells were used as a cutting tool. Later there were copper-bronze knives, then iron. Iron knives are quite reliable, but have significant disadvantages, one of which is their instability to corrosion.
This problem was practically solved with the advent of stainless steel, but the stainless steel also has its drawbacks: it is soft enough, and the knives are badly kept sharpening. Therefore, the search for a more perfect knife did not end on it, and ceramic knives appeared. Ceramics turned out to be the most promising material for the production of non-metallic knives. Experiments on the manufacture of ceramic knives began in the 80s of the 20th century in Japan.
Japanese ceramic knives were topped with knife art, which was achieved thanks to the skillful combination of centuries-old traditions and the application of the latest technologies of one of the most highly developed countries of the world.
Buy ceramic knives are now quite simple - they are cheap and sold everywhere. But even recently, the purchase of a ceramic knife was a serious blow to the wallet.
In 1985, the Japanese company Kyocera began producing knives from dioxidcyrconium ceramics. Zirconium dioxide has a high hardness, for measuring which is used by the hardness scale of MOOS materials. Thus, the hardness of zirconium dioxide on the MOOS scale is about 8.5 units, while the hardness of steel on this scale is 5.5 to 6 units, corundum - 9 units, diamond - 10 units. Thus, the material from which ceramic knives make, hardness approaches diamond. Zirconium ceramics is used not only for the production of knives, but also in jewelry, in the aviation industry and mechanical engineering, in dentistry. The wear resistance of zirconium dioxide exceeds steel more than 80 times: made of high-quality ceramic knives made from it can serve for a very long time, remaining sharp.
The process of manufacturing ceramic knives is complex and long. To obtain a ceramic blade, zirconium dioxide powder is first pressed under a pressure of 300 tons per square centimeter, then exposed to heat treatment at temperatures of 1600-2000 degrees Celsius in special furnaces for a long time (from two to six days). In this case, there is a sintering of zirconium dioxide crystals and the process of forming blanks is underway. At the same time, the longer the product is withstanding in the furnace, the stronger it becomes. Then ceramic plates (future blades) are sharpened.
Depending on the characteristics of the technological process, a black or white ceramics is obtained. Black ceramics is obtained by adding a special black dye and longer withstanding blanks in the furnaces, as a result of which they become stronger. Therefore, the knives of black ceramics are more wear-resistant, but they are more expensive than knives of white ceramics. In terms of quality, ceramic knives differ very much from each other, as it depends entirely on the technological equipment of the manufacturer, from compliance with the technological process.
Ceramic knives are popular both among professionals and among lovers of culinary art. Truly, Japanese ceramic knives have one-sided sharpening, due to the traditions of the Samurai heritage and the influence of Japanese national cuisine. For export, the Japanese, as a rule, make knives with a bilateral sharpening for Europeans. Among the most famous stamps you can highlight Hatamoto knives (Khatamoto), Kasumi (Kasumi), Samura (Samura), Kyocera (Kuouroer), Shinoda (Shinoda), Bergner (Bergner), Swiss Home.
What are the advantages of ceramic knives before ordinary knives made of steel?
The first advantage is the knife sharpness and the ability to keep sharpening for a long time: they are sharpened once a half or two years, and with intense, but neat use of a knife such a knife is able to keep sharpening up to three years.
The second advantage is the chemical neutrality of ceramic knives, which is expressed in their inability to keep the smell. The ceramic knife does not affect the taste and quality of the prepared food, as it is made of extremely dense, low-pore material. It is enough to rinse it with hot or cold water after meat, and they can already cut fruits. Ceramic knives do not leave an unpleasant aftertaste, since they do not enter into chemical reactions with products.
The third advantage of ceramics knives is their low weight, which creates ease of use. Ceramic knife can be long and quickly cutting, not feeling fatigue.
The fourth advantage of ceramic knives is their absolute resistance to corrosion. There are no metal components in the knives of ceramics, so they are not affected by rust, do not change the color, not covered with spots, are not afraid of hot water and aggressive detergents.
The fifth advantage is their scratch resistance on the blade. Due to the exceptional hardness, the ceramic blade is almost impossible to scratch, and therefore it will last long and will retain an attractive appearance.
The sixth advantage of a ceramic knife is that the ceramic surface is smoother than steel. This ensures easier res.
The negative qualities of ceramic knives include their relative fragility: as a result of strong inflection, the blade can be broken. The steel knife is much stronger on bending, as the metal has a greater viscosity. When cutting meat with bones and other very solid products, it is possible to eliminate the cutting edge of the ceramic knife. Before buying a ceramic knife, decide how you keep it. Many manufacturers offer special supports in which knives do not come into contact with each other.
Another, conditionally negative, the property of a ceramic knife can be considered the absence of universality inherent in the metal knives. Ceramics knives are very convenient in the cuisine, but are completely unsuitable for use as a tourist knife, or a knife "for all occasions."
Let us dwell on the features of the use of ceramic knives.
So, these knives are ideal for cutting soft, juicy products: fruits, tomatoes, meat. Solid products (for example, pumpkin, watermelon, zucchini) should be cut with caution, sliding movements. Frozen products cut with ceramic knives is not recommended due to the danger of the smoke of the blade. Cutting with a ceramic knife should be cut using a cutting board of plastic or wood, work should be opened above the table, since when the knife drops and the ceramic knife drops, the ceramic knife can burst. It is also impossible to use such a knife for cutting. Wash ceramic knives can be hot water without fear, but it is not recommended to wash them in a dishwasher, as the knife can strike the cutting edge of the metal surfaces. Store these knives must be neat, separate from other dishes. The ideal option is to use special supports with "noodles" - such can be bought in our store.
In conclusion, it should be said that sometimes it is advisable to buy a set of ceramic knives: This will allow you more efficiently and faster to cope with cooking. It is essential that the set consisting of several knives will cost you cheaper than the purchase of each knife separately. The standard set includes knives with blades of various sizes and shapes. The choice is yours!