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HydroRaven
8
Dec 4, 2017
What are the merits of ceramic knives vs. the traditional steel knives?
djfluffkins
157
Dec 4, 2017
HydroRavenThe short answer is that ceramic knives are good at cutting/slicing things like veggies, fruits and boneless meats while retaining a level of sharpness that doesn't require frequent sharpening, but they are very fragile (easily broken) and can't stand up to harder things (bones, frozen products, etc).
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.
djfluffkins@djfluffkins covered it, but also worth noting that ceramics can pretty much only be sharpened via diamonds, and even then its difficult to not screw up and chip to hell. Steel is much more forgiving when it comes to sharpening.
Rgconner
67
Dec 5, 2017
HydroRavenCeramic knives are more or less disposable. If you don't like how they perform out of the box, it is unlikely you will ever like how they perform.
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.
cs85b03
101
Dec 8, 2017
HydroRavenCertain foods will brown when touched by steel. I like to cut lettuce with a ceramic knife because it won't brown on the edges nearly as quickly.
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).
RogierFvV
43
Dec 8, 2017
HydroRavenLike everything else, quality matters. I have some Kyocera Revolution knives I got here on Massdrop and they are excellent. I don't like the paring knife because the blade is too wide and for finicky tasks I tend to grab it and cut myself, like digging a sprout out of a potato, so for that I like a narrower paring knife that I can hold safely. For most cutting work I don't like the lightness of the ceramic blades, but for cutting up fruit etc. they are excellent because of their extreme sharpness, so you won't ever bruise anything.
A community member
Dec 8, 2017
cs85b03I have a plastic serrated lettuce knife I got from Ikea. It's plenty adequate for lettuce and is indestructible. Cheap too.
RadicalPosture
2
Dec 8, 2017
HydroRavenCeramic knives have their place in your kitchen, but as others have mentioned, there are tasks for which they aren't well suited. I use ceramic as often as I possibly can because a good ceramic knife is quite literally razor sharp, but you can't use them for anything that offers significant friction along the flat of the blade, like cheese, or anything very hard, such as bone, anything frozen, and so on, because a ceramic blade lacks the tensile strength and flexibility of steel. Even if the blade holds up, sufficient stress can snap the tang. For cutting meat or vegetables, though, ceramic is amazing; it glides through muscle tissue and vegetable fibre like it's hardly there. You can't sharpen them, but they do retain their edges for longer than steel, they're much lighter, and they're chemically inert. So if you're going to commit to one material only, you probably want steel, but I can't imagine my kitchen without my ceramic knives. Hope that helps.
suttlaw
2
Dec 9, 2017
RadicalPostureCeramic knives will hold an edge longer without sharpening, can be put in the dishwasher, can not be put on a magnetic knife holder, and break when dropped on a ceramic kitchen floor. I have one because my wife likes it.
cy1220fl
0
Dec 9, 2017
suttlawAren't they supposed to keep things like apples from turning brown longer? I thought I read that. I have both in my kitchen I like the way I can slice tomatoes.
suttlaw
2
Dec 9, 2017
cy1220flUse lemon juice on the apples to keep them from turning brown. If the knife slices tomatoes well, keep it.
RadicalPosture
2
Dec 9, 2017
suttlawThat's true, but I avoid magnetic knife holders anyway because they scratch the hell out of the blades and take up wall space. You can't beat a nice wooden block for storing good knives. Ceramic knives will probably break if you drop them, yes, but I'd argue that that's user error, since no kitchen knife is designed to be dropped. Steel fares a bit better, but probably needs to be repaired after dropping on a hard surface. I've never dropped any of my ceramic knives, so it's never been an issue for me, but as with everything, you have to choose the material that works for your particular needs.
suttlaw
2
Dec 9, 2017
RadicalPostureThere are magnetic knife holders, wall and table, that are totally encased in wood. Very cool looking and no scratches. ( https://www.massdrop.com/all-communities/drops/kitchen-knife?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cco_Kitchen_Knife_Q_A&referer=T6U23E&mode=guest_open&iterableCampaignId=211827&iterableTemplateId=302942)
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.
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