What ever happened to ceramic knives?

[Smegmalicious]

I did a quick search for ceramic folders and came up with basically nothing. What happened to that? I thought ceramic was going to be the next big thing.

 

[mete]

They can break if you drop them . Sharpening is difficult, Kyocera the kitchen knife maker says to send it back to them !! They are expensive. A high grade stainless steel like S30V is a much better idea.

 

[Andy_L]

everyone realised steel knives are better in the long run

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Boker still make some ceramic knives, but I agree with mete, a good steel is the best way to go.

 

[Habeas Corpus]

A high grade stainless steel like S30V is a much better idea.

A decent toolsteel at full hard is an even better idea. Try a knife in M2 at 64RC or so and you'll see what I mean.

Hans

 

[Nimick]

I own two (well technically three) boker Infinity ceramic blades. I love them. they are great slicers and they practically never loose their edge. Now mine seem to have blessing bestowed upon them that they have not cracked in two when I drop or do something royaly stupid with one of them. The edge is fragile and will chip if whacked against say, a rock, or a plate, but the ceramic is so sharp that what you get left over is a mini serration.

The blade is very light, lighter than my native. only my ceratitan blade is lighter.

Oh, and (scary thought) Pre 9-11 I carried it through a couple of airport metal detectors, not even remembering it was there.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

They are actually not that expensive, you can get a nice utility kitchen knife for less than $50. They don't react to vegetables so they can also replace the plastic knives used. The biggest problem is that the can not be sharpened by the common steels or ceramic rods and they don't work well with coarse edges. It would be interesting to see someone like Spyderco do a small folder with a ceramic blade with a suitable serration pattern. Not all ceramics are the same either, just like there are alloy steels and a big difference between AISI 420 and S90V there is a big difference between ceramic and ceramic composits which have been used to make hammers and prybars.

-Cliff