Thread: Ceramic blades

Has anyone ever tried to create ceramic razor blades?
I have once handled a ceramic kitchen knife that was horribly sharp, and never gets dull.
Sure would make insteresting shaving, though maybe it would be too sharp.

Honing would be a major pain! And I'm guessing the edge would be too fragile. It would probably chip very easily...

Can you hone ceramic blades?. It would probably be a "use until dull situation". I don't know why the blade would be too fragile --considering it's used in knives with heavier duties than a straight razor. ??. You might not be able to use a full hollow grind with it though --that might make it too fragile. Neat idea, Bruno.

Seems like a year or so ago a member was investigating exotic materials for blades, including ceramic & tungsten. I can't remember who it was though

A bbc radio 4 program said that kyocera tried zirconia for razor blades but it was too aggressive an edge and caused a lot of skin irritation. Actually they said it bit into skin rather than gliding over properly.

Does this mean it takes too sharp an edge?

That's precisely what it means. Believe it or not, you can actually have a blade that's too sharp. I was discussing diamond pastes with Ray at ClassicShaving before his death, and while he carried 0.25 diamond paste he really cautioned folks and tried to steer them away from it; this was simply because it could create too fine an edge.

Makes sense to me ---We spend so much time talking about razors being sharp enough ---just don't go overboard.

I imagine it shaving like a wire edge, sharp but nasty.

I used to use ceramic clipper blades when I used to Groom animals. While they stayed sharp about twice as long as steel they couldn't be sharpened by any of the usual people we had available. They were wicked sharp though but rather than steels way of slowly getting duller with each use they just seemed to go from usable to useless in a second. I eventually kept some around as backups because they were durable, I could throw them in the back of my tool kit for months and pull them out and they were like new , try that with a steel blade and it would be a rusted mess.

perhaps a disposable blade for the Artists Club for those people Feathers just aren't sharp enough for.