There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
HIP (hot isostatic pressing) is just an additional step where the already sintered ceramic is reheated to a high temperature under an applied high pressure to squeeze out internal defects such as voids (common defect from powder pressing). This increases strength substantially. HIP makes it much more resistant to accidental chipping and fracture, but I don't think it increases hardness substantially.
The literature claims this is Z206, probably a grade with a really fine zirconia particle size; Kyocera does not offer material specs for this grade. It's probably closest to the Z701N in terms of properties. I have sanded these types of zirconias in the past using carbide sandpaper, but it takes a lot of work to remove material. If you look at their technical ceramic specs, you can see that high purity aluminum oxide, carbides, and of course diamond are all harder than zirconia.
Kyocera offers an automatic diamond knife sharpener on their site...not sure how good it is. I think that the issue here is that the edge develops microscopic chips and wear over time and does not form a burr during sharpening. You basically have to form a perfect bevel and finish with really fine diamond to ensure a good edge.
Compression molded knife blank, followed by HIP in a graphite crucible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5QgygaKF-Q
Kyocera motorized sharpener at bottom: https://kyoceraadvancedceramics.com/ceramic-knives/kyotop-series-ceramic-knives
Technical ceramic specs: https://global.kyocera.com/prdct/fc/product/pdf/material.pdf