Why Slice® Blades Aren’t Initially as Sharp as Traditional Blades

Slice® safety blades are sharpened to an effective but safe level, and cut most materials easily. Consumers mistakenly believe that blades must be razor sharp in order to work well; this isn’t true for most cutting tasks.

Blades are most dangerous when they are too sharp or too dull. At one time, all blades were made of metal. But metal is a relatively soft material, so it dulls quickly. Manufacturers work around this by making the blades extra sharp in order to extend the life of the blade. This has become the standard design for most blades (metal or ceramic), but this dangerous sharpness isn’t actually necessary for an effective cut.

You Don’t Need Razor Sharp to Cut Effectively

A blade can be sharp enough to cut common materials like cardboard, paper, clamshell packaging, shrinkwrap, rubber matting, drywall, and foam, but not so sharp that it just as easily cuts you. Slice’s patent-pending design proves that.

Metal blades are razor sharp because otherwise they’d become uselessly dull even faster. Dull blades are dangerous because users must exert more force to cut materials, which increases the risk of a slip and accidental cut.

Manufacturers of traditional kitchen and industrial ceramic blades mimic the thin, overly sharp design of metal blades: traditional ceramic blades come typically as sharp as metal blades.

Slice Safety Blades: A New Angle

Slice safety blades are made from 100 percent zirconium oxide. This advanced ceramic is extremely hard compared with steel.

When compared to other ceramic blades, material composition may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so performance and material properties can differ. Design also makes a difference: the thin design of traditional ceramic blades makes them prone to chipping enough to ruin the blade edge.

No other blade, regardless of its material, has Slice’s double-angle grind design, with a thicker blade and wider angle.

Slice blades feature our patent-pending finger-friendly® grind: you can touch the blade edge safely. Our blades are sharpened to a safe but effective level, so cut most materials easily, including those mentioned above, and so many more.

Line graph shows testing results of comparative blade sharpness over time (expressed in number of test runs).
Metal blades start much sharper than necessary and dull very quickly. Slice ceramics have a safer initial sharpness and last much longer. This independent study was performed by the Cutlery and Allied Trades Research Association.

Slice blades dull very slowly because of their advanced ceramic material, combined with our blade design. As such, they don't need to be excessively sharp out of the box. They start off at a safe sharpness and stay there much longer. In fact, Slice safety blades last an average of 11 times longer than dangerous metal blades.