Ceramic Blades

[The Duke]

Im thinking about getting daughter a nice set of ceramic blade kitchen knives for her new house..

All I know it they are quiet $$$ and what the sales person told me..which was all good and nothing bad...

Anyone have any pros and con about the ceramic blades...???

[jack404]

snapped blades aint fair wear and tear ... so stay away from pumpkins eh ...

[Bill DeShivs]

Very brittle, very fragile. They stay fairly sharp for a long time. Expensive.
My suggestion is you buy her a set of Victorinox (Swiss Army) kitchen knives.

[The Duke]

I was afraid of that...common sense that a ceramic product vs some good Swiss or German steel wont hold up to much shock..From the reviews Ive read, it seems the steel stamped Global Knives and the Victorinox are give outstanding ratings for both sharpness and price...I was suprised that the Wustof brand didnt fare nearly as well.

[cutter]

If you have a Harbor Frieght store close by, they sell ceramic knives for around $20.00 a piece. They are pretty good kitchen knife for the cost but as othe people have stated they are very brittle. Cant beat good steel!!

[The Duke]

Thanks, cutter...Got one in Shreveport. Ill check it out..The price is certainally right!

[kayak22]

Ceramic blades are very sharp, like obsidian blades. They can be broken easily if miss-handled. DO NOT PRY WITH CERAMIC BLADES. With that caveat, ceramic blades are excellent cutting blades and can be very good for kitchen knives. Meat, and most vegetables and fruits, are easily cut, with very thin slices possible with minimum effort. The knives do not require the maintenance that steel does to keep them sharp as long as care is exercised to not abuse the blades. Use wood or plastic cutting boards, do not use glass, metal, or similar cutting surfaces since this can dull the blades. Once dull, sharpening is not easily done at home. Send them to a professional sharpening service that has a good reputation in ceramic knives.

I have several ceramic knives that I use often. Kitchen knives as well as a folding knife and a fixed blade sheath knife that I use for many duties in the field, including carrying the sheath knife on my kayak for clearing lines or ropes someone left in the waterway and have become fouled on my boat or on the boat of a companion on the river or where ever we may be.

When not in use, keep the ceramic knife in the protective sheath or folded and kept in a pocket or pack. Do not strike metallic or glass bars, rods, or surfaces with the blade.

You can cut slices of onion thin enough to virtually see through, Same with tomatoes or other veggies. Meat can be sliced so thin that deli cuts look thick by comparison. Prosciutto slices can be made very thin to be combined with melon for appetizers. I like mine.

[Fast Forward]

Get her a nice set if Stainless Steel Henkels or Tridents,,

[joncutt87]

Or a set of CUTCO knives, the are warrantied forever and really tough to mess up. Plus you can send the entire set to get sharpened at the factory for only $6.

[joncutt87]

Plus CUTCO knives are made in America

[Gun Geezer]

I've had Harbour Freight's ceramic knives for a couple of years now. Unless you try to pry the lid off a paint can, they will hold up just fine. Also, HF frequently has them on sale. I think I paid around 6 bucks for the last one I purchased. I purchased a pair at a local home show for around 60 bucks last year. They aren't one bit better than HF's. The guy selling them at the home show said they could be sharpened and he would do them for free for life. For six bucks @ HF, I'd throw it away when it got dull.

[toppkatt]

Ceramic knives are nice, but there are caveats. They are brittle. Hitting a bone when cutting meat can chip the edge. They do not flex. They stay sharp longer than any other knife material I've ever encountered. That said, once they get dull you'll have a hard time sharpening them. Either send back to manufacturer or buy diamond plates (at least a medium and fine and possibly extra fine) and sharpen them your self as I could never find a professional sharpener who would touch the things. They take too long to sharpen and chip too easily so they'd have to charge much more to sharpen them than a regular steel or stainless steel knife. It takes alot of time but the ceramic is so hard a regular Arkansas stone or Japanese water stone will be ruined quickly. Only a diamond is harder than the ceramic used. Two types of ceramic used. One is black and the harder of the two and one white. The white ones sharpen fairly easily with diamond stones. The black ones are hard to sharpen even with diamond stones. Used according to their strengths and weaknesses you should be fine, but personally, unless the person expressed a specific desire for a ceramic knife, I'd select a good German and Japanese steel knife first.
I hope you got what you paid for in my response.

[JLA]

I prefer german steel in the kitchen.

[joncutt87]

I like american surgical stainless

[Oldeyes]

I am by no stretch of the imagination a knife expert, but my father was and for years he collected a wide variety of pocket and kitchen knives. My sense based upon actually ease of every day kitchen cut and chop usage is that the very top knives are still the non stainless high carbon (Yes, they rust if not cared for immediately after use.) knives. High carbon non stainless can literally attain and hold true razor edges. The razor edges are also easily maintained with simple sharpening tools. There are a number of US (Dexter-Russell), French (Sabatier) and Japanese non stainless high carbon knife manufacturers. The US ones are well made and inexpensive; the French ones are great and a little pricey; the Japanese ones are absolutely superb, but definitely pricey. IMHO the best ceramic blades are only on a sharpness and ease of cutting par with well maintained Victornox's, Henkel's and Wusthoff's. There is nothing particularly special at all about the ceramic knives other than they do hold edges for a long time, but as stated you have to be very careful not to chip or break them. Thus, I consider them to be a RPITA for daily use as a totally practical kitchen knife. I also have several older off brand Cr-Mo metallurgy knives of the Japanese Seki city steel works origins that will literally cut and chop circles around the Victonox's, the Henkel's and the Wusthoff's. Good off brand Seki city steel knives will be available at most good specialty kitchen knife stores. Seki will be stamped at the base of the blade right at the hilt. And finally, of all of the readily available brands that you mentioned as possibilities for your daughter, I would go with a 5 knife set of Global's. All of the Global's have integrated triangular shaped stainless steel handles that women with smaller hands actually prefer. I would get her a short paring knife, an intermediate length narrow bladed kitchen knife, a long bladed serrated bread knife, a wide bladed 7" or so Santoku design knife (AKA 'the workhorse') and an 8" to 10" chef's knife and she can do just about anything in the kitchen. All of the Global's come from the factory with quite highly polished wicked sharp edges. The Global highly polished edges are quite easily maintained with the correct tools. The very best thing that I have found to touch up the polished edge on a Global is a 10" long, large 1" diameter (probably 1,200-1,500 grit), white ceramic rod in a round wood protective handle. Just a few strokes of the Global blade edges on that ceramic rod will restore the sharp factory polished edge. Good shopping, sir.