Ceramic kitchen knives

A new generation of knives has arrived to the culinary world. This new type of knives is becoming more and more popular every day that passes by. These knives have a cutting performance out of this world, and they are manufactured with cutting edge technology (no pun intended). What is their secret? The answer: their ceramic blades.

Ceramic kitchen knives came to existence around 30 years ago. The one who came with the idea of manufacturing kitchen knives with ceramic blades instead of steel blades was the Japanese brand Kyocera. The people at Kyocera realized that ceramic as a material had a great potential for being part of blades with exceptional sharpness and remarkable strength. 

At the beginning, ceramic knives had a rough time trying to penetrate the market due to the very well-established reputation of steel knives. However, with the pass of the years, more and more experts of the kitchen started to discover the great quality of ceramic knives. Nowadays, even though steel knives still occupy the biggest share of the market, ceramic knives are already the preferred ones of several professional cooks around the world.

The type of ceramic used for the manufacturing of the blades is called zirconium oxide (also known as zirconia). This material truly has a superior level of hardness and robustness. In fact, in the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, zirconia has a value of 8.5 mohs while diamond has a value of 10 mohs and normal steel has a value between 5 and 6 mohs.

Advantages of choosing a ceramic knife

Besides its level of hardness, ceramic knives also tend to outperform steel knives when it comes to sharpness. Not all ceramic knives have the same level sharpness, but if you choose the ones of great quality like the Kyocera knives, you will find that their sharpness is truly outstanding and it can last for several years before it needs to be sharpened again.

Another big advantage of ceramic knives is their weight. When compared to steel knives, ceramic knives are always lighter, and thus they are easier to handle. In addition, because the blades do not include metallic ions, you won’t have to worry about rust and corrosion, and the odors and acids of foods won’t get attached to the blade.

Most ceramic knives are easily distinguished by their white blades. However, there are also some ceramic knives with black blades, and it is important to know that these blades are tougher than the white ones. The black blades are made of black zirconia, which is a material with greater durability than the zirconia used in the white blades.

The blades of ceramic knives can keep their impressive cutting performance and level of sharpness for a very long period of time, but it is necessary to care goo care of them in order to avoid reducing considerably their lifespan. Ceramic knives are perfect when it comes to cutting fruits, vegetables, and boneless. However, they are not meant to be used for cutting frozen foods or carving and boning meat. 

Another important advice for taking care of the blades of your ceramic knives is to use wooden or plastic cutting boards. Using a glass or marble cutting board would damage the edge of the blade, thus diminishing its cutting performance.

At MyChefknives.co.uk, we have a large selection of ceramic knives not only from Kyocera but also from other well-known brands such as Pradel Excellence and Victorinox. Welcome to the new era of kitchen knives!