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"The use of ceramic as a substitute blade material for steel is picking up, especially in models targeted at the niche and high-end markets. The heat-processed material's zero-pore surface inhibits buildup of germs on the blades. In addition, it does not react with acid or alkali present in food." "More importantly, ceramic designs retain their sharpness over a long period of time, are rust-resistant and boast a hardness level of 70HRC. Typically, metal ranges only from 52 to 62HRC."

A ceramic knife is a knife made out of very hard ceramic, often zirconium oxide (ZrO2). These knives are generally produced by compacting Zirconia powder using high pressure presses which apply a pressure of around 300 tons to produce blade shaped blanks. These blanks are very brittle and fragile which can be shattered by a slight blow and special binders are used to retain the shape of the blank until the firing process. Like all ceramics these are consolidated into a dense and strong ceramic by solid state sintering at approximately 1400 degrees centigrade for 5–12 hours in a high temperature furnace. The result is a very hard and blunt blade which needs to be sharpened to get the desired cutting edge. The blades are sharpened by grinding the edges with a diamond dust coated grinding wheel. Read More