Ceramic kitchen knife?

[Chris]

I would like to try one of these to see what they are like. Where in UK could I get one? Do they ever need sharpening? Anyone tried one? Comments or recommendations?

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!I would like to try one of these to see what they are like. |!Where in UK could I get one? |!Do they ever need sharpening? |!Anyone tried one? |!Comments or recommendations?

Never had one would never get one. Ceramics are *brittle* and a chipped edge from hitting a bone, another knife etc will be useless.

uk.food+drink.misc is thataway >>>>> There is a person there who calls herself Gadget Queen, bet she has had one.

[Andrew Mawson]

Stone age technology returns ! Go knap a flint

AWEM

[TMC]

Son bought one of these when he was working as a chef. Sharpest knife and longest lasting edge of any knife he has used (his other knives are mostly Global) Weight and balance are excellent

However never let it out of his sight at work due to risk of damage by other chefs borrowing it

We have never needed to sharpen it but have diamond sharpening kit should it need doing

This link gives some info

my view its nice to work with quality tools but a decent stainless knife and the ability to sharpen it properly is more than adequate and much cheaper

Tony

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!Weight and balance are excellent

Excellent balance and handle shape are very personal properties of a knife. I personally found a Global knife unusable, and almost gave it away, because I could not get on with the handle, :-( despite it being the sharpest I have ever had. It has now become the recipients favourite knife :-)

[Chris]

In article , TMC writes

Thanks very much - the URL is useful. I would welcome more details on the diamond sharpening kit. Sounds complicated!

[TMC]

Hi Chris

As I said I have never used the diamond stones to sharpen the ceramic knife.

I use

for my router cutters and general small tool sharpening and would use them for the knife when needed

A general link is

[Tim]

Have had a Kyocera for about six years - best knife I've had. Used daily will still slice through paper at the slightest touch. Dropped it for the first time a week ago - about four onto ceramic floor tiles - end chipped off. If you get one, clean and dry it as soon as you've finished with it and put it back in it's box straight away. Will definately buy another. Tim

[The Medway Handyman]

We have an Ice Bear make. Axminster used to do them but discontinued the range - something they do all to often.

Unbelieveably sharp, excellent. Never sharpened it yet (2 years +).

[torge conrad maguar]

I would guess the harder the edge on the ceramic knife the more of a pain it is to use a diamond sharpener. Diamond sharpeners seem like the 'bees knees' when you first get them, but in my experience a little while later they 'blunt', leaving them similar in operation to a sharpening stone.

Tesco have recently been selling a knife with a *tungsten carbide* edge; it's £6 odd with a 21 cm blade. Made by Richardson Sheffield. I rang them up and asked about sharpening. They said if it ever needs sharpening return it to them since it's self sharpening!

The idea being the softer steel part of the knife wears away, but leaves a thin edge of tungsten that doesnt wear, in other words the more you use it the sharper it gets! I've got one myself, have no connection with the company and find it really good!

[Andy Dingley]

There are two sorts of diamond in those stones: monocrystalline and polycrystalline. Polycrystalline is cheaper, but "wears out" rapidly as you describe. Alwyas buy DMT or Eze-Lap

[Malcolm Stewart]

I bought something like this a few years ago. It's a French Cook's style knife ~15cm blade, and again it's by Richardsons of Sheffield, a "FUSION forever sharp" with a tungsten carbide edge, one side only. I was disappointed - it was not that sharp straight out of the packaging. Richardsons didn't reply to my email, and mine sharpens up considerably using a double wheel tungsten carbide kitchen knife sharpener. I think it does stay sharp longer, but the best edge is not as sharp as I get on a steel bladed knife. (Very obvious on slightly soft tomatoes) Looking at the business area of the blade under a microscope, and it's obvious why it's not that sharp - the tungsten carbide particles are quite large and relatively blunt.

[torge conrad maguar]

"Malcolm Stewart" wrote in message news:467913a3$0$16390$ [e-mail]...

Posted via a free Usenet account from

i think about it, i did run a diamond stick lightly up the carbide side and a bit harder up the steel side and it seemed to improve it at the time. It does seem to stay sharp for quite a long time though, i.e. ever since.

>

[Steve Firth]

You shouldn't be surprised, the Fusion and Laser ranges are terrible. The only Richardson's knives that I have had that have been any good are the Sabatier branded knives. Similarly Taylors make a range of terrible knives, with the exception of the "Eye Witness Ergonomic" range which have great blades and comfortable handles and they take and retain a decent edge. The handles are useless for left handers and they don't make left hand versions which is a shame.

The sharpest knives I own are Japanese bought from a seller at the Country Homes Exhibition at the Business Design Centre last year. They are like razors and much better than anything else I have owned. They were not cheap and they have a watered silk pattern on the steel showing that they were made using the same technique as a sword with a soft back and a hard edge.

It's worth buying decent steel knives and learning how to sharpen them than messing about with these fashion accessory ceramic and tungsten carbide blades.

[Peter Ashby]

Well it is hardly surprising. On router cutters HSS can be honed to be significantly sharper than TC, the difference is durability. HSS cutters are in essence for getting good finishes on softwood where durability is not such a problem and TC can give a fluffy finish. You use TC on hardwood and abrasive man made boards that would blunt a HSS cutter in no time. If you are chopping carrots or meat then a TC knife will perform well, try it on softish tomatoes and the benefit of sharp steel will be evident. We use Sabatier knives and they come up very nicely sharpened on one of those little crossed steel sharpeners. The little paring knife can be made frighteningly sharp, more than enough for soft tomatoes.

Peter

[torge conrad maguar]

what make were the Jap knives, please? I thought I would do a search for them.

[Steve Firth]

Aaarrgh I thought someone would ask. I can't remember and the box is

100% Japanese. I'll see if I can find the show catalogue.

Bloody hell, surprised myself. It's this lot:

the ones I bought are these:

about "more money than sense" acknowledged in advance.

[Andy Dingley]

Try

(Ice bear are nice)

or

(German, good range, starting from only 20 euros for a good one)

[Andy Dingley]

=A380 quid ? That's pretty low-end for laminated stuff, even though these aren't forged and they have riveted handles. You can find catalogue knives up to about =A3800, and that's without looking at custom work or the expensive stuff.

Thw multi-layer mokume laminates are purely decorative and have limited function on something as thin as a kitchen knife. They're more detrimental if anything, as the alloys are chosen for a contrast when etched, rather than performance. They're useful on a chisel or an axe, but not on a knife or on most swords (there's some tradition of them on naginata). For most pieces, three layers is simpler and better.

Japanese swords _don't_ show patterns like this. If they do, they're more likely recent Chinese eBay tat. They're folded once or twice at most, which displays the useful three-layer soft-hard-soft (usually) pattern that good kitchen knives also use. Any patterning more than this on a sword (the hamon) is caused by differential zone hardening, a process pretty much unique to Japanese sword smithing (it's done by wiping a pattern on insulating clay onto the blade before heating and quenching it). They're not pattern-welded, as Western swords often were.

Although Japanese swordsmithing does use a fair bit of folding and welding, this is back in the billet stage before it's a recognisable sword. The laminations aren't visible in the finished product like this, or if they are it's a distinctly low-grade piece. Modern ideas of accentuated laminations and heterogeneous alloys are very modern in this tradition (Hitachi will sell you nice pre-laminated billets).

Nor is any sor of mokume a Damascus.

[Steve Firth]

I think your grandmother is over there demanding a course in how to suck eggs. I didn't mention Japanese swords.