Ceramic Kitchen knives

[quakerboy]

your take?

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Ceramic monomolecular edge knives, certainly.

Until then, ceramic sporks shall have to do.

[quakerboy]

3. Oh. Spork

where can I get ceramic sporks?

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. I don't know.

And as such, am sensing a business opportunity.

[GoneOffShore]

2. Expensive, brittle, have to be sharpened at the factory (I think)

Give me good high carbon steel knife -

Excellent article on knives in this weeks New Yorker - About Paul Kramer - you'll learn more about knife steel than you'll possibly ever need.

[astral]

5. They're totally worth it!

Brittle maybe, you just can't forget it's ceramic and you'll be fine. DOn't smash garlic with this knife, use another one.

I bought one I think three or even four years ago for approximately $60 and it's still sharp as can be. I use it for all chopping of raw vegetables. It is wonderful to always have a sharp knife and to never have to sharpen it.

When it does need sharpening, I can either send it in or buy a ceramic knife sharpener. If I send it in I think I'll buy a second one as well. What would that be, there, six to eight more years of never having to sharpen my knife?

If you do alot of your own vegetables in the kitchen, they will pay for themselves because you are happy to get down to business chopping things.

The other thing to remember (which I still have to work on!) is to wash your produce when you get home from the grocery store before you put it in the fridge, so when it's time to eat you just grab and chop and -- fry / steam or eat or whatever you're going to do.

[Ikonoklast]

6. Ceramic sharpening 'steel', yes. Knife, no.

Knowing how to sharpen a high-carbon stainless steel blade correctly helps.

Ceramic knives are less than ideal being used where flexibility of the blade is essential.

I have Forschner blades that are over twenty years old, and they are just as sharp today as they were when I first got them. Good knives, commercially used, and properly stored when not in use.

For the price of two ceramic knives you can purchase a complete set of commercial grade steel knives.

[quakerboy]

7. I am bad on my knives

I am horrible about not quickly cleaning them, particularly after cutting onion/tomato, and the cheap ones I own show their suffering. My understanding is ceramics don't stain, and obviously they wouldn't rust. Its a tempting idea.

[PBS Poll-435]

8. Ceramic Knives?

Probably should spring for the Laser Knife.

Or Laconia if it is available.

[Tektonik]

9. Meh they're sharp as hell, but I like my steel knife

Now my ceramic veggie peeler and mandolin you'll have to pry from my cold dead fingers.

[PBS Poll-435]

10. My apple core-er is the best investment I have ever made

An apple a day...

[Indi Guy]

11. Ceramic Kitchen knives - Pardon the obvious question:

Where, other than the kitchen, have you seen ceramic knives? :P

[moriah]

12. They keep talking about them on airplanes.... n/t

[Indi Guy]

13. Sorry for my ignorance...

Yeah, I'd rather take a ceramic kitchen knife on a plane ;)

[quakerboy]

16. I would have thought that would be more the field

for plastic knives. I remember as a kid really wanting one of the hairbrush/hidden plastic knives.

My dad had a brief fascination, so he got me one of the plastic knives. POS. Wouldn't cut butter, only useful insofar as you need an over sized plastic nail.

[kentauros]

14. I used to use an 8" carbon-steel chef's knife

and then the plastic handle broke at the tang (it didn't go all the way through the handle, even though it was one of the German knives, Henkels or the other one.) I also had a 7" Chinese vegetable cleaver. That became my all-around knife since all I'm cutting anyway is veggies ;) I have three paring knives and two bread knives, all of them are steel as well. I don't think I paid more than $20 for the cleaver and the other knives were gifts. I have some stamped steel knives that were also a gift, but I haven't used them in many years. I really don't use many different knives.

My big problem with ceramic is that it is brittle. I don't know how many times I've dropped one of my knives, jumping back out of the way so I don't get a knife point through the shoe. I'm not clumsy, but wet hands and handles do slip sometimes. I haven't had to replace a knife yet because I dropped it.

Imagine how easily a ceramic knife would dive through your shoe and then your foot...

[quakerboy]

15. Ive cut myself enough times

that I am a little careful with my knives. I don't touch them unless i can keep a grip. I learned that lesson with a Saumari sword, and given the number of stitches, I learned it well.

And I don't wear shoes, so thats one worry out of the way...

[kentauros]

17. Even without my hands getting wet during the process of cutting/chopping veggies

I've still lost my grip. Depends on the substance getting cut. Still, I've rarely cut myself with my knives. I have gotten cut across a knuckle of the hand holding the knife handle, though. I still can't figure out how that happened

I also use my cleaver to smash garlic, mince and then press the edge against the pile as I draw it across the board to further mash it into a pulp. If you can't do that with a ceramic blade, then forget it. I use a lot of garlic :D

And if you don't wear shoes, is the "worry" that you won't ruin a pair of shoes as the ceramic knife falls through it? ;)

[astral]

18. I use lotsa garlic too

and the ceramic knife is the best for chopping garlic.