Ceramic Kitchen Knife

W

Wasz

Joined
Oct 2, 2002
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353
My Dad read somewhere that a ceramic knife won't cause lettuce to brown. So he wants one for x-mas. Any ceramic knives out there that don't cost an arm and a leg that are big enough to chop lettuce?
 
Yes, I would think that Kyocera are the ones to get. But, how are these ceramic blades compared to steel ones? Anyone with any experience on the matter?
 
one of my teachers had one (this guy was nuts) and he brought it in one day to show us it. he was cutting cucumbers and i told him to throw it in the air and cut it like they do on the commercials and he did. and sliced the shit out of it. i know you have to be wary of them chipping, espeically the tips though.
 
Yep, you gotta be careful of them chipping.....my mom washed one i gave her in the dishwasher a bit, and there are now some chips on the edge! .....but if you wash it by hand and store it carefully, they work really great! very rarely ever go dull!
 
if he eats the lettuce promptly he wo'nt have browning.browning is'nt a health issue only appearance.when slicing ribs ' seedy fruits & veggies, he may find edge maintenance a factor.ceramics can be sharoened on diamonds. in any case he will need to sharpen it eventally, then a relative or himself will need the diamonds.
 
No knife browns lettuce except one with a rusy blade. Ceramic blades are delicate, chip and break fairly easily, are very difficult to sharpen and will not take as acute an edge as steel without chipping. You can't beat steel as a blade material.
 
Had a Kyocera ceramic knife... they DO dull after a while, and are more or less impossible for the average user to re-sharpen. If your dad is hell bent on getting one, and it'll make him happy, go for it. If he's only using it on lettuce, I doubt the degree of sharpness will be an issue for a LONG time.
 
I have some of the first Boker ever had produced. I still have them and they are extremely sharp.
I've dropped them a couple of times without breakage. (thank goodness)
Over a decade of use I have one that has a few small chips in it. (most used of the bunch, 5" utility)
I believe Boker will still sharpen them for nothing if you ship it to them.

Most of the time I grab a Shun or Vic paring knife because they're sitting there on my SS table.
I've always kept the ceramics put away in the cabinet because I didn't want accidental damage.
 
i also have a kyocera paring knife...i love it and i almost wish i could get it as a 6-8" chefs knife, but it's not practical...it would be very expensive, and because knives get dropped......

add that it HAS to be sent off to be sharpened (though ceramic holds an edge a very long time); just not practical...
 
If only we had a kitchen knife subforum to discuss these sort of things, we wouldn't need to use General.

hmm.....
 
2brothers said:
I have some of the first Boker ever had produced. I still have them and they are extremely sharp.
I've dropped them a couple of times without breakage. (thank goodness)
Over a decade of use I have one that has a few small chips in it. (most used of the bunch, 5" utility)
I believe Boker will still sharpen them for nothing if you ship it to them.
Click to expand...

I also have a first run Ceramic Boker. I used to slice with it a lot and when it finally dulled I sent it back to Boker. They "used" to do it if you paid shipping, but there is a small fee now. No way in heck can the average guy get it close to what Boker does. I don't know if it's laser sharpened or what but it laughs at stones.

added...

Removed sales pitch.

Ken C.
Super Mod.

No sales pitch. It was a cut and paste from the Boker website about getting ceramic knives sharpened.
 
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Ceramic knives might be nice in that they take an edge and hold it for a *long* time. But in the kitchen, especially when you gain enough knowledge about knives, this ironically becomes less and less of an issue as you cook more; the more you end up knowing about knives, a correspondingly greater knowledge of sharpening is usually acquired. Having worked in fine dining for a while, I can assure you that a lot of cooks can prepare foods with knives that I considered little better than 8 inch butter knives - but the food still tasted the same. Hell, if you got right down to it, I'm almost certain that I could do about 97% of kitchen cutting tasks with a guitar string wrapped around two handles. Having a sharp knife is more a matter of convenience and ease, rather than a necessity: a fact supported by the sheer number of people who lack knife knowledge, and end up using dull knives.

To answer your question more specifically, ceramic knives really only have two properties that are useful in the kitchen. The first, as I mentioned before is their edge retention, and the second is their corrosion resistance. Slicing lemons/limes and other acidic foods with PH's approaching 1 is a harsh environment for anything. However, the advantages of a ceramic knife, in my opinion, are offset by the amount of care that you have to put into them. They chip easily, are more fragile, much harder to sharpen, and are virtually guaranteed to shatter if you drop them.

On the subject of lettuce, a lot of people suggest not even cutting it at all. Cutting will cut cells, or crush them against the cutting board, which is what opens up the lysosomes for faster oxidation within the cell - this is what causes browning in fruits. If you tear the lettuce with your hands you can avoid the lettuce browning as quickly.
 
if you cut your own new yorks or butterfly shrimp i assure you a sharp knife is a necessity. in the 60s we sliced our tomatoes by hand also.
 
I've had one of the Kyoceras for 5 years. I like it, when I use it. As long as it's not cutting "hard" stuff it zips through. It is a little lighter than most comparable steel knives. What I really like is that it doesn't "track" like many knives do, and not much sticks to the blade.

Kyocera states that they will resharpen their knives.

I'll bet that plastic knife will work good for lettuce.
 
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