Ceramic Knives

[ChrisZ]

Haven't thought of ceramic knives for years...

Around the late 90s there was a TV chef (American with Asian background, I think) who really pushed them, had his own branded line of Kyocera ceramics. I only saw one or two episodes of his show, but his constant endorsement of ceramic knives made me curious, so I asked about them at a specialty knife shop. They informed me that ceramic knives are illegal in Australia because they are not detected by security metal detectors and treated me like I was some type of criminal!

I'm pretty sure they now add metal powder to them so they set normal metal detectors off, if I see a cheap one I'll give it a go, see how it goes with tomatoes (I eat a lot of tomatoes, they're always my test for knife sharpness)

[rotuts]

that's Ming Tsai, "SImply Ming" he never said how to sharpen then but from time to time mentions they might break.

Maybe Ill look into BB&B with my ubiquitous 20% coupon, now that I know how to sharpen them!

BTW if you regular knives ( all of them ) cant easily slice a tomato ie with just the weight of the knife, you need to get on the (a) sharpening bandwagon. they have all though serrated knives cause people never learn to sharpen their knives properly.

you dont need the Edge-Pro but this will be easy to use and make a ton if diff. if you have a tomato "Problem "

http://www.amazon.com/Jewelstik-CN10-10-Inch-Kitchen-Sharpener/dp/B000IAZD9A/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1352292207&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=jewelstix

Edited November 7, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[dcarch]

"------ if I see a cheap one I'll give it a go, see how it goes with tomatoes (I eat a lot of tomatoes, they're always my test for knife sharpness)"

You don't need to spend the money for a good knife for cutting vegetables and tomatoes. If you keep a consistence slicing angle, a sharp plastic knife will last a long time.

I find a ceramic knife not that good for slicing tomatoes. Because the brittleness of ceramics, they have to grind the edge at more blunt edge angles.

dcarch

[Charcuterer]

If you happen to have an outlet mall close by there is a store that is in almost every one called Kitchen Collection. They have a lot of silly gadgets like Avocado scoopers and the like. The one by me has little plastic handled ceramic knives for $6.99 they also have the kitchenaid branded ones for somewhere around $12.00. Compared to the Kyocera they are pretty bad but cheap and sharp (at first...)

[Maliaty]

Also, ceramic knife caused one of our microwave Pyrex type glass dishes to explode violently. It was very exciting.in the not good way. Something about the tension being released by the awful sharpness. All I know is that it doesn't happen with metal.

[jorach]

I've told this story a bunch of times; but I bought a ceramic paring knife from Kyocera that went dull almost immediately despite being cared for properly in my eyes; only used on an end grain wooden block, hand washed, etc.

I couldn't sharpen it, and it wasn't worth sending it in and paying $15 to have it sharpened. I stick with steel.