You got your Ceramic Mule. How you gonna sharpen it?

[Steeltoez83]

I have my own criticisms of why this was made too. I wasn't wearing my excited pants when the ball started rolling either. I'm moving thru these shenanigans of mine to really see what this stuff can do. So far I haven't thought of a practical use for it yet. However I have seen edge retention improvements thru sharpening. I am working my way thru harder materials such as ice right now, and limestone after that. Spyderco likes to take the road less traveled, those usually have the most stones.

I don't want to detour from my normal testing too much. Bridging off test results and making gradual alterations is helping me identify where the rubber meets the road. Instead of 60% in 1 day, extend it over 7 to get a percentage not a pass or fail score. Then replicate the same amount of impacts the ice got, but with a harder material like limestone. Depending on the damage or lack of, move up to a cinderblock same idea. The process is gradual, but I'm hoping to provide a few more positive points to the discussions.

[hewn7]

I too would like a broken piece for SEM if anyone has any to spare. It doesn't need to be as small as Hewn's.

Hewn, what model do you have?

We have a phenom, It can take samples larger than that but that’s the size of the “sticky tiles” we have to mount samples on.

I do have a 20 micron diamond film belt on the way. I’ll try that with lubricant on the 2x72 running slowing in reverse on a rubber wheel and see what we get.

Have been using the mules around the house, kitchen, barn and they have been great. No chips etc, but I do tend to be careful with my blades. Save for last weekend when I was cutting a piece of rubber edging with my umnumzaan. Dang thing had a strip of metal
In it.

[burlyspyder]

I too would like a broken piece for SEM if anyone has any to spare. It doesn't need to be as small as Hewn's.

Hewn, what model do you have?

We have a phenom, It can take samples larger than that but that’s the size of the “sticky tiles” we have to mount samples on.

Nice, we also have a Phenom. I figured as long as it can fit in the tray I'd be able to figure it out. The reason I asked is because you described the mount area for samples almost exactly. I haven't run anything ceramic, will be interesting if I can get a piece. Maybe I will try sputter coating as well for giggles.

[hewn7]

I think it would be interesting to see grain size and what’s happening to the grains along the edge. Usually to see grain boundaries you need to etch a material fist,
But I’m not sure what that would be done with for this material.

I did sharpen on mule with the diamond film belt this weekend with water as a lubricant. It’s around the same sharpness as the tormek w cbn mule now, but with a finer smoother edge. On a 3 Finger test it feels sharper but shaving and papertowl say it’s around the same.

Still using the knives daily and they work great around the house. Have a Bahamas trip coming up so I’ll take 2 there and use them as for diving, rigging, fish cleaning etc.

[Nottoby]

Got my hic mule not real sharp but i knew it was gping to be a little rough it cut paper but not to well decided to try yo sharpen it a little i have watched lots of vids on utube on sharpening ceramic knives most of it is hands on but i have. Learned that thesharpening method must be fine so i worked on it alittle and that works just fine 3000 grit diamons polish it just fine Let you know progess

[Nottoby]

I have been trying to get an edge on a ceramic mule . I have been finding that a fine grit diamond works very well to polish edge . With no chipping . I have one chip but it was there bran new.the diamonds i use are 2000 and 3000 . Any thoughts thanks

[bloggablu]

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this already or not but if you watch outdoors55 on YouTube the only way he could properly sharpen ceramic was taking a wooden wheel and using diamond paste as the abrasive so it wouldn't chip the blade if I recall, since every other method chipped the edge. That's the method I would use. Every time I've tried to sharpen one with a diamond sharpener no matter the grit size it usually always chips.

[Giygas]

Todd, at Science of Sharp just posted a great article about the HIC Mule!

https://scienceofsharp.com/2024/09/04/h ... t-ceramic/

[VandymanG]

Haven’t tried to sharpen mine cause it slices through fruits and vegetables with ease. I don’t envision ever carrying this as an edc so I use it for what suits me best, food prep.

[hewn7]

Just getting back from an elk hunting trip. I used the HIC mule to cape and bone out some, but not all, of my bull. Had it shaving sharp off resin bonded diamond stones (up to 6k JIS) before stropping it. Overall it did well, still scrape shaves at the front 1/3 of the blade which would've seen the most work. I can feel a few small chips in the apex when running my fingernail along it but they are not large enough to be visible. I did chip off the very tip at an odd angle so that there is still a very usable point but it's a very slight drop point there now. I believe I did that by hitting it on a stainless table when boning out a rear quarter. Will sharpen it back up and carry on, but so far no major issues.