Ceramic Kitchen Knives

We’re looking at getting a better kitchen knife. I have two ceramic-burr coffee hand grinders, and I’m reasonably impressed with them. Has anyone on here bought ceramic kitchen knives? What are some things to look for when buying them? I probably won’t buy from an overpriced department store, so are there any good brands sold in average kitchen stores?

Thanks.

We have a ceramic paring knife that is fairly sharp and doesn’t get stained by cutting tomatoes or lemons, as a nice steel knife might, but the tip did break off. We also don’t use it often because we received an awesome set of steel knives as a wedding present (years ago), which is more than sufficient. I believe we may have bought the ceramic knife at Hola’s kitchen store (upstairs from the construction/gardening stuff).

Never used them, but saw some in Hola the other day. Faddish if you ask me. I like carbon steel, personally. A knife you cannot sharpen is a doorstop, far as I’m concerned.

Be aware that there are negatives to ceramic knives – they are more expensive, they chip or break if dropped, and you can’t resharpen them (you have to send them to the manufacturer to do that for a fee, if the maker even offers the service at all). All that so you get a knife that holds an edge longer, and doesn’t rust or stain? None of my kitchen knifes has rusted or stained, and I can sharpen them regularly. They don’t break when dropped, and don’t chip when you hit a bone, although that still hurts.

Uhm, actually, these days you can get diamond sharpeners for ceramic knifes… global.kyocera.com/news/2007/1204.html
That said, I bought a cheap one a couple of years ago and it sucked ass. Sure, it was sharp, but somehow it didn’t cut as well as the steel knifes I have, it’s as if the blade was the wrong angle or something.
And yes, the chipping is a huge problem, dropped it once and that was it…

That’s several thousand just for the sharpener. And the knife will still break if you drop it. :loco:

Knives should be durable. Ceramic knives aren’t. That rules them out, right there, IMO.

Well, I didn’t say I’d get another one :stuck_out_tongue:
But you can sharpen then, if you want/need to, that’s all.

Ceramic peelers are the best! NT$100 - that’s like free to me! What a difference! I’m a peeler (of fruit and vegetables) and I will never use a metal blade peeler again! Something about the way a ceramic peeler just finesses the skin off, even with my poor eye-hand control. Ah!

Re: ceramic knives at NT$400 (plus). I’m still of two minds, but starting to reconcile them. I bought a ceramic knife a few months ago, and I did break the tip (my stupidity for using it to poke and twist at the shell of a coconut), but I can’t help reaching for it and it is now my favorite … Even if I replace it in a year if it gets dull, I can finally slice (thin or thick), dice, chop and otherwise carve at will with only one and the same knife. And I don’t worry about it sitting in water or otherwise developing rust on what is supposed to be stainless steel in other semi-expensive knives I have bought for the same price.

IYouThem, what brand did you get?

Can you still get carbon steel knives? I haven’t used one for years because they mostly went to stainless.

Former sous chef: quality steel chefs knife is all you need for about 99.9% of kitchen tasks. Although I do agree a ceramic peeler is something I would splurge on…

As far as the ceramic peeler brand goes, I don’t know. Sorry! It is an elongated handle/straight line design (as opposed to a wider T-shape design), but, uh, … I really don’t know the brand.

The favored ceramic knife I mentioned is a “Dr. RIN” brand.