Ceramic knives?
This isn't a direct answer, but a commentary on my experience with a ceramic knife. I simply cannot recommend them for any purpose. I have very good steel knives, and they're tough. Ceramic knives are like glass; certainly never twist one or apply any sideways force. They break and chip easily. I keep my knives razor sharp, and you just can't do this with ceramic (yes they do dull). You can't use a knife to its full potential if you have to be so careful with it. Yeah, they're high-tech looking, but hardly any chefs use them. Save your money. I mostly use Wusthof. They're not too expensive, and they take a sharp edge. I also use a Chef's Choice, which has a very different and expensive steel alloy that supposedly holds an edge for a very long time. Wusthof is better.
What is the best way to sharpen ceramic knives?
Ceramic knives are a special case.The angles are different and you must have an astoundingly hard abrasive like diamond at the correct grit and pressure.KYOCERA has lifetime sharpening for some of their ceramic knives in some markets. Ceramic knives hold an edge for a long time but not forever. If your fine knife has a sharpening service as many do avail yourself of it.A quick look and ceramic knife sharpeners set the bevel angle a lot steeper than one would use for most steel. One makers sets the bevel at about 35 degrees vs. 15 for the modern VG10 steel knives and 20 degrees for more common steel. This means that common kitchen sharpening machines and guides are set wrong and an expensive knife would be damaged as would the common sharpening stones in common sharpening machines. There are diamond sharpening systems for steel knives but the angle would be wrong risking damage to the ceramic knife.Consult the maker of your ceramic knife for advice. I see that the big makers of ceramic knives have branded special sharpeners at reasonable prices. One is battery powered and I suspect that removing the batteries between the infrequent use would be advised.Again…There are different ceramics and different manufacturing methods. Consult the maker of your ceramic knife for advice.
Why don't sushi chefs use ceramic knives? They’re better than steel knives in every way except for chopping uses. It seems like they would be perfect for sushi, but I’ve never seen a sushi chef use one.
Well listen friend, ceramic knives may seem like perfection to you, but if you were a sushi chef, they wouldn’t be your favorite whatsoever. I’m no chef, but I know a really skilled sushi chef, and he has shown me his knives quite alot, and they’re all steel. Here’s why:Sharpness: ceramic knives are known for having a super long lasting edge. Since steel knife sharpeners are mostly ceramic, a ceramic knife is stronger than any steel knife. However, this is a problem for someone (a sushi chef) who uses knives so frequently that they resharpen during their work shift, and every day when they get home. Sharpening a ceramic knife with a ceramic sharpener is about as problematic as sharpening a hard steel knife with a hard steel sharpener. It doesn’t work. So for more casual kitchen work they work just fine, but the need for a constant super sharp edge can only be achieved by constantly sharpening your knife during use, something that can’t be done to ceramic knife that quickly or easily, and time is of the essence for sushi chefs.Durability: A sushi chef has a wide variety of knives that have different levels of hardness for different tasks. A ceramic knife is only brittle and of one hardness, so now you’re stuck with one knife that does everything, which is not optimal. Sushi chefs prefer having many task specific knives. The average person prefers to have one “kitchen knife” that can do it all. This is all fine until you have to cut through something thick like fish bone. They have a specific knife that has a thicker spine and wider edge for chopping things (a deba I think?) like fish bone. A ceramic knife is usually super thin, and quite brittle. It would snap trying to cut through the bone of the fish.Lifetime: Since ceramic knivea are so easy to break and hard to sharpen, I would assume their lifetime isn’t the longest either. For someone who is using their knives for hours on end almost every day of the week, is wouldn’t last that long at all. A good Japanese knife (especially a wide one like a nakiri) could last you up to 30–40 years if you know how to sharpen it. Those knives have a wide blade so they could be sharpened till they were all used up. So a nice steel knife is expensive, but it’ll last you a long time.I’m sure there are other points about the disadvantages of ceramic knives, but I find for a sushi chef these would be the main ones. Hope this helped
Which knives are better: Cutco or KYOCERA?
Kyocera has a ceramic edge, this will stay sharp longer out of the box but you will never be able to sharpen it yourself, you'll have to mail it back to them at your cost and pay a fee to have them reestablish the edge. Cutco is a stainless steel offering meaning it will come just as sharp but the edge will break down a bit quicker than the ceramic, however, you can sharpen the cutco knives yourself, or have a local knife sharpener do it or, finally, I believe cutco will also sharpen them for you if you mail them back to them. Personally I am not of the opinion that ceramic knives have advanced enough yet to be of good value compared to good steel knives, so I would go with the cutco. In all honestly, personally I would choose the Shun Classic line of knives or a high grade Henckels knife, but I doubt the cutco lets you down. really how good a kitchen knife is breaks down to how sharp it is, cutco's and other steel knives can be sharp for generations, the kyocera will be out of date in under 5 years (and very dull by then) someone mentioned cutco knives rusting, I can tell you that if anyone has had a stainless knife rust (it's possible) it is 100% their fault and they obviously did not take basic care of their knives, ie handwashing and DRYING after use; it is not a legit knock on the product. you also do not have to spend $80 a knife as the one person recommends (granted I did recommend shun classic's which are more lol). It's all in the steel of a knife really, there are hard to find these days but a good carbon (ie non stainless) steel knife is a joy to use as it takes an edge much quicker than the harder stainless and holds it nearly as long, being lazy bastards in the kitchen has moved the market place almost totally to stainless steel. Your cutco steel can get just as sharp as the best henckels, anyone who says other wise doesnt understand how a blade takes on an edge, his henckels may hold the edge longer but big whoop, a couple of passes on a wet stone and you're back to being as sharp as him.
Sushi knives for a chef?
When you are ready to drop 1000$ on the knife it's perfectly ok to be very picky. Anyway, you do need to go with Japanese blades. I know a lot of knifemakers in US, but none of them work on those style knives except may be Butch Harner. For sushi, or in other words slicing thin stuff you need Yanagiba, which is called sushi knife in the west. Single bevel blade. I have a few 300mm Yahagibas, but there's large choice of even longer ones. Whatever you feel comfy with. More extreme version is Fugubiki, which is optimized for slicing very soft fish, thinner than yanagiba and lighter, but even more fragile. As for the makers, Aritsugu, Watanabe, Masamoto, Nenohi, Moritaka they all make top quality knives and you don't have to spend 1000$ either. Aritsugu honkasumi yanagi will cost you around 500-600 and that knife holds edge exceptionally well. I have mine sharpened at 12deg single bevel and it's better than the straight razor. I haven't finished all the reviews so far, but there's a few here - http://zknives.com/knives/kitchen/ktknv/... As for your #1 question, you need another type of knife - Deba. Yanagibas and Fugubikis are for slicing the fish, not filleting. Deba is the smallets, then there is Miroshi deba and even bigger Ai-Deba. Here's Deba - http://zknives.com/knives/kitchen/ktknv/... And Miroshi - http://zknives.com/knives/kitchen/ktknv/... Deba is used for decapitating/filleting smaller fish, Miroshi for 20-30 lbs or so. I figure those numbers aren't carved in stone and depend more on your preferences and skills ;) Debas come in both, single bevel and double bevel version, while miroshis I've seen only in single edge version. Shinichi Watanabe is quite famous and respected maker, you can place order with him directly - http://www.watanabeblade.com/english/index.htm plus he can accommodate your personal requests and give you an advice too. Moritaka is another maker that will work with you. Aritsugi knives are superb, but pretty much impossible to ge tto talk / email them directly. However Takeshi - aframestokyo.com will help you out. Plus he has very good selection of top end Japanese kitchen cutlery. P.S. Forget ceramics. That material isn't ready to be a good knife blade material. I've used and sharpened a few, including Kyocera and brittleness aside, ceramics never gets as sharp a sthe good steel.
Knives: Which is sharper, a ceramic or steel blade?
It depends on the knife. A ceramic knife is probably sharper than your run in the mill knife. A hand sharpened, good quality carbon, or stainless steel knife will be just as sharp as a ceramic knife.If you're talking about a cheap ceramic knife, then it really isn't worth your money. Kyocera is my favorite brand for ceramic blades, and the only product I buy is a ceramic peeler. IMO, definitely worth the money. Ceramic knives break, chip, and get dull. I can resharpen a knife for decades. Some of my knives are 12 years old, and they're as sharp as I feel like sharpening them.Ceramic knives? Junk.New high quality ceramic knife vs a freshly sharpened 12 year old knife? I'm not sure how you'd test the sharpness, but it would be indistinguishable in almost any cutting test.
I want to buy some chef's knives for a gift, what is a good brand?
I want to buy some chef's knives for a gift, what is a good brand?I’ve got some knives at home which are tear gas strength prices. They are more medals than tools. All of these things are just things of beauty but few see the real world except for maybe my handed sashumi slicer.One day I was in Den Bosch in the Netherlands and there is this amazing knife shop. They had some hand made damask blades which look like something out of an ice palace. Wood handles with some amazing colours. All sat there in a wooden box. Perfect balanced Deba style knives. The rainbow, oil slick, metal is a thing to behold. From memory you would be light about 200-300EUR each. It’s a good shape knife and can be used in a number of jobs for someone who wants an all round blade shape.As others have said there are some very good brands out there if you want to get a set of knives. To add a little confusion here, Sabatier is not so much a brand, it’s a region. There are good Sabatier and there are others. German, Swiss and Sheffield steel is great. Plenty of good US makers too.