There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Steel are more traditional workhorses and are multi purposed for many things. If you are looking for an all purpose workhorse for the majority of use cases steel would fit your needs.
For me I don't like them. They are not as sharp as I can get with a waterstone and feel like they tear what I am cutting more than steel does.
As the other posters have mentioned, you really don't have a good way to sharpen ceramics - at least safely or cost effectively. They should be used sparingly for specific purposes only (if you really even need them at all).
Actually I keep all my knives in a drawer (in a knife holder) so that I can have the counter-space that a block would take up. User error is to be expected. I rarely drop a knife (twice a year?) but when I do I don't want it to shatter or chip badly. A dropped metal knife has to hit in a certain way to inflict damage. I don't see a ceramic knife being that picky.