Hey all you foodies, I've been considering getting a ceramic chef's knife. It seems like most of them are made by Kyocera. Does any one have any experience with these knives or any other brands?

Do they really maintain their edge? How often do you use one?

Just how delicate are they?

Lauri,

I have a small ceramic knife that I love. I have never sharpened it and it remains my sharpest knife. However, it does get chips on it, although so far, that doesn't seem to affect its cutting ability.

I am sure others on the board are far more qualified to answer your question though.

Sheri

Lauri - I have a small Kyocera ceramic paring knife that I use to slice sashimi. It does remain very sharp though I do wonder how I'm going to sharpen it when it does go dull (you're supposed to return them to the factory for sharpening). They're also more fragile than steel knives so it's possible to snap them if you're not careful.

Masaki

Hi Lauri

I have a 5.5" blade, wood handled knife. The one in the Ming Tsai series. It's a nice size for me and I love it! I've had it for 2 or 3 years and it's still very sharp. As you know, it is fragile. Mine got a nick in the sink, I think. I sent it back to them and they fixed it. It's not so fragile, though, that you have to worry about which foods you use it on. (However, I don't use it to remove avocado pits.) So, just keep it out of the sink where it could get banged around against other things; slice through stuff without twisting it; and you'll love it! It's great for pineapples!

Kim

Thanks!

Sounds like it's great for certain applications but isn't going to replace my regular chef's knife or santoku.

Lauri,

Happy belated birthday! Get yourself a Kyocera. It really has replaced my Henckels. I use it everyday. The Henckels comes out only when it's time to deal with avocado pits!

I took the plunge and got a 5.5 inch santoku and a 3 inch paring knife (it was a set). Also bought a bamboo cutting board.

I looked on Kyocera's website and $10 to resharpen two knives isn't bad at all. Thanks for the advice!

Cool!! That's probably the 5.5" knife I have. You will love it!

We have two of the larger Kyocera knives, a paring knife, and a harp peeler as well. (Gave peelers to several folks one year -- you can't apply a lot of pressure as you peel -- they're sharp and don't need pressure or they dig too far into the fruit or vegetable. Some people never figured that out and went back to their old peelers.) We've had them for several years. We also got the knife shields to slip them into since they're stored in a drawer with other things (for their and our fingers' protection, both). They still are my favorite knives, even though my DH thinks they could use sharpening -- we haven't sent them back for that. We do use them only on wood or plastic cutting boards. We also have some of their ceramic tip pens, by the way, which are wonderful to write with.

sjanova,
Where did you get the knife guards? My set comes in a box, so I thought that's where I'd keep them as my knife block is full. But the guards sound like a great idea.

I looked at the peeler but I'm pretty happy with my OXO one. I went for the cool looking bamboo board instead (had to spend $100 to get free shipping so the board didn't cost all that much).

Kim,
When you sent your knife back for repair/sharpening, how long did it take?

Lauri

It didn't take long. Probably not more than 2 weeks. I was waiting for them to say it was my fault that the knife chipped and how much I'd have to pay them to fix it. Then it just showed up all fixed and no charge!

We also got a blade protector that looks like these:
http://www.organizes-it.com/poknifecover.php
I don't have any experience with this website. It just came up from a google search. We got ours at a brick and mortar kitchen store. Storing it in the box eventually felt kind of inconvenient. Our kitchen is small. So now we just snap the protector on it an put it in a drawer.

We also only use wooden cutting boards.

I'll keep my eye out for some of those protectors. There is a Sur le Table nearby and I'd bet they have them.

Two weeks isn't a bad turn around time at all.

Just got an e-mail that my order has shipped, yay!!!

I got my knives yesterday and absolutely love them!! <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />

They cut through a tomato (and lots of other veggies) with unbelievable ease.

I'm trying to be very careful with them, I hope this level of performance lasts.

My little paring knife that is about 6 years old and has several nicks, still cuts like the first day...and it has never been sharpened! :)

Hi Lauri

I'm so glad you love them! They won't need sharpened for a loooooong time. And, yes, be careful!