Ceramic knives

[smoke king]

Slowly but surely, I'm upgrading my knives. I was thumbing through a catalog and noticed the ceramic knives. Anybody use them? How do they compare?

To keep this in perspective, I am not a chef, so a Hattori (335$ for a paring knife?!!) and others of that ilk are not even in the running. I'll go so far as to say that my sharpening skills are marginal at best, so that too should be a consideration.

FWIW, the ceramic blades look pretty cool...and being a guy, that sort of thing can sway me pretty easily!!:yum:

[joec]

I owned one and will never own another. First they are sharp but not as sharp as a steel blade can get. They hold their edge a very long time and are hard to impossible to sharpen yourself which usually requires sending them back to the maker if they last that long. Now in my case my wife dropped mine and the blade broke in half. It was two days old and the warranty didn't cover a snapped blade. They are also easy to brake if you twist the blade as they don't handle lateral or twisting movement well.

I suggest you check out Takeda DP at Korin, Kanetsugu Pro M at http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/ProMSeries.html both are great knives and much cheaper than Hattori. Odds are you will not need more than 3 or 4 knives depending on what you cook as a home cook.

[smoke king]

Thanks Joe-I didn't realize that they had to be ret'd to the mfr to be sharpened. Everything else aside, that is enough to put me off of them!!

[joec]

I know a couple of people that have been able to sharpen them using pastes and other methods but they still won't get as sharp as a good steel knife will.

[High Cheese]

A friend of mine has one, it's tip broke off.

The only other person I saw use one is Ming Tsai.

[Doc]

I got my wife a couple Japanese knives for Christmas. She absolutely loves them. Just yesterday she was cutting through a head of cabbage and marveled that she has never had a knife cut through cabbage that easy. :thumb: She love them.
I got them through The Tourist. A member here and a master tinkerer.

[smoke king]

Ah yes....The Tourist. Reminds me of a fellow I encountered a while back....he went by the name "Chico Buller" though. I'm sure its a coincidence!!

[joec]

Nope one in the same Bob.

[smoke king]

Thanks everyone. I had a hunch that the hype and the reality were far apart. I guess I'll keep looking.