High Impact Ceramic performance results

[Fireman]

I got a Rhaven knives HIC knife in the whale model to test it for performance and I wanted to see what your results may be. Spyderco is thinking about a mule for this to see what we think. Here are my initial thoughts and test results. This is not a review of the knife design but the edge performance but I got the whale model to reduce flex being wider and the design would be a good all around knife for kitchen and backpack needs.
Whale model;
Out of the box, sharp. Cuts paper well enough to make a circle in a paper unsupported except being held by two fingers with the only issue being the blade shape making a larger circle. Cuts paper towel without issue. Shaves arm and leg hair, but not cleanly. Lacking a “toothy” edge so it does not grab tomato skin easily for initial cut but once the skin is cut it is great. Hard wood and dry bamboo cutting was impressive. I was whittling and doing bushcraft notches without issue and no discernible edge damage. Chest pulls on hard wood was especially impressive. It excelled at push cuts in the hard wood for notches. Food prep was a breeze but you have to get used to using such a light knife. I have not done any abuse testing other than the bamboo which is pretty challenging for any steel. Cuts through clam shell plastic with ease. I had to get used to the properties of the factory edge with how smooth the edge was. I will keep up the testing results. Any requests for media testing?

[samdasnake]

Does the manufacturer make any suggestions on how to sharpen?

[Matus]

You will need diamond abrasive with soft support. Diamond stones or plates don’t work according to Roman (of kknives_switzerland who was part of the development and testing of the material).

[samdasnake]

You will need diamond abrasive with soft support. Diamond stones or plates don’t work according to Roman (of kknives_switzerland who was part of the development and testing of the material).

So like a strop with diamond paste?

[Fireman]

Roman and Sal have been doing experiments with sharpening and I think they settled on 3 different sharpening methods. You can find that info on the ceramic thread in the Mule forum. I did discover a hiccup in the paper slice after my initial tests but it can barely be seen and that was doing some challenge cuts in hard wood and dry bamboo. Under less challenging media there would not be an issue. My advice is to treat the edge like you would Maxamet and limit lateral forces on tough media. On the positive side, with the small nic, it now cuts tomato skin open there with ease! On the Cedric and Ada channel it cut twice the amount of rope than maxamet did and still cut paper cleanly.