Posted: 7/12/2008 10:26:22 PM EDT
| Harbor Freight has 3 different ceramic knives for $20 (edited)or less. Rubber handle, white blade... nothing fancy, but pretty cheap. Anyone here tried them? www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=98184 |
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I've tried Tachi zirconia ceramic blades, but not that brand. They are AWESOME, but not good for cutting hard things like bone, or for cutting on hard surfaces, since the sharp part can be chipped. They are very strong, though, and harder than steel. I also have a superhard black zirconia ceramic pocketknife. It is even harder than the white blades, and it is so dark and shiny that it looks almost like metal. The thing is an absolute work of art, and it was only $70. |
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Ceramic scissors are pretty cool if you need to cut kevlar fabric. I got to tour a factory that was making some high tech ceramics nearly 20 years ago. I still have some of the Kyocera ceramic ball point pens. I think I heard that they put tiny amounts of metal in the matrix now so that metal detectors can pick them up. Maybe obsidian is a better choice. 
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| "bookmarked" (copy-pasted the URL into a draft e-mail in my G-mail account - when you're at work, you improvise), I think I'll order one. I use a plastic cutting board and don't cut against bone, just meat and veggies and whatnot, so I'm interested in seeing how ceramics perform. I think I'll get the 6" because I like a heavy blade. |
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I use a keyocera ceramic sandoku blade at work alot and it is fucking tits. scary sharp, i cut myself with it hte first time i used it. great for super thin slicing. best part: if used properly it pretty much never gets dull. Ours has had like 2 years or restaraunt abuse and it is still so sharp its nearly dangerous to use. expensive though, i picked one up for a wedding gift to the tune of 80 bones. harbor freight... i am a little skeptical. |
speaking of that, some people do have trouble with the light weight of the ceramic blade. At first it will handle kinda funny if you are used to good quality steel. I am very intrested to see how these cheaper blades work. oh yah, be careful, my keyocera will slice flesh with only the lightest contact. do not touch the blade edge |
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In ceramics, you really get what you pay for. Some of the newer TTZ (transformation toughened zirconia - a crystal lattice transformation traps small particles in the shear plane which prevents crack propagation and increases toughness aka shatter resistance) blades are nearly as shatter-resistant as steel. They're around $500/blade though, at least last time I looked. |
serious knapping..... gotta love volcanic glass SRM |