cheap(ish), tough, ceramic knife?

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itsastickup

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I've been hearing things that some modern ceramic knives are very tough and resilient to chipping and smashing.

It's been on my mind to recommend to my buddies cheap ceramic santokus to throw away after a year or so. £10 is just fine. Better still when they have dimpling. A standard chef's knife would do, however.

But the issue has always been their fragility.

Anyone know more about this? What might be the bottom end of the range for a tough, ceramic knife?
 
Ceramic, dimpling, santoku... Three strikes

These options are all pretty unpopular here. Ceramic is hard, hence brittle. Dimples don't do anything other then change the cosmetics, pretty much a gimmick. Santoku, I'll just leave that one alone.

Want a cheap knife to recommend, how about the Victorinox chefs knife
 
Some of them are metal-cored (mostly to stop them from being metal detector proof, and to make them stick to magnet strips) - you could check at the store with an inconspicious magnet ;) That would help mitigate the breakage risk, won't help against chipping.

Given that top of the line ceramic knives (Kyocera, Dalstrong) are still much more expensive than 10 quid, the most modern technology is not likely found in cheap ones.

The black ceramic blades (IF they are not a misleadingly DYED BLACK "white ceramic" blade!) are of a slightly different material, reputed to be slightly tougher (see http://kyoceraadvancedceramics.com/ceramic-advantage/frequently-asked-questions#q12). There seems to be another post-process (cold isostatic pressing) that some manufacturers use (Dalstrong, Kikusumi), claiming good toughness.

If you want cheap knives for your friends, probably best to just go Kiwi, and show them basic steeling/stropping :)
 
Bought one slightly more expensive than £10 about 4 years ago.

Took an age to be shipped in from China. When it finally arrived, I used it for a grand total of 6 mins or so. Then straight to the bin.

It chipped almost immediately and felt horrible to hold. It was stupidly light and just god awful ugly.

Save your £10 for the love of god.
 
"Tough" and "ceramic knives" don't go together. They are simply too brittle because they are so hard. Add in "cheap" and you are fighting a losing battle. I think for the price point you're talking about, just buy anything at the shop as they are all probably similar quality.
 
I bought my wife a ceramic knife. She loves it. I hate it.

Sharpening it takes hours and the edge is very brittle and microchips. On the upside, it's very toothy so it cuts into tomatoes with certain ease.

Sadly this forum is not the prime place to ask for those. I would also avoid them. A Victorinox chef's will do better.
 
My wife loves ceramic knives as well. Wouldn't go so far as to say I hate them. Can't recall having even used one. She's never had one break or chip, but they're only used for light kniving chores like slicing vegetables or chicken.
 
KeithA said:
My wife loves ceramic knives as well. Wouldn't go so far as to say I hate them. Can't recall having even used one. She's never had one break or chip, but they're only used for light kniving chores like slicing vegetables or chicken.
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I hate it because I'm the knife keeper of the house, ergo, the one who sharpens. It takes forever to bring an edge to the apex.

To be fair, it cuts quite nice for tomatoes when sharp.
 
Just to explain, the grain of ceramic knives is very, very coarse. And the stuff is brittle by nature. The best edge you may get is very obtuse, fat behind the edge and particularly rough.
 
bkultra said:
Ceramic, dimpling, santoku... Three strikes
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Hahaha!!

I do feel terrible about my heretical question. But I can't find a hang-head-in-shame emoji to do anything about it.

These options are all pretty unpopular here. Ceramic is hard, hence brittle. Dimples don't do anything other then change the cosmetics, pretty much a gimmick. Santoku, I'll just leave that one alone.
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Don't dimples help the potatoes fall off on cheaper knives? I know I have that problem with my own. It's quite bad and I've often thought of trying to dimple my knives as a result.

The Santoku is all about my friends needing an easy option suited to the lazy house wife who can't be bothered to train herself up with a few youtube vids.

Want a cheap knife to recommend, how about the Victorinox chefs knife
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What I'm hoping to recommend is a cheap one-stop-shop solution. No sharpening needed, chuck it away when done.

And the victorinox's aren't even any kind of special anything while being really a bit pricey. Are they really worth it?

Why not just spend an extra few quid and get something a lot nicer if one is also going to get the sharpening nonsense. I can't remember the exact brand, but there was a quite nice sabatier you could get in one of the upmarket hardware shops for £50 about 5 years ago.

But, having said all that, perhaps I really should be asking for a basic, decent sharpener and just go ahead and recommend the victorinox with a steel.
 
Dimples help money fall off of wallets.

The Kiwi might actually work for you. They're so thin that they feel sharp for awhile and they are priced as throwaways. You could probably fill up a sack for L50.
 
If you want a knife that is to be used and tossed away any time it needs sharping. Then the Kiwi is a great option.
 
There's adult dimples, called Tsuchime or in a subtler version Nashiji :)

And at least a Kiwi is made of something that can be called knife steel, albeit low grade knife steel. They are sharpenable if you want, and due to the hollow grind simple stone technique or ceramic roll sharpeners will work without thickening the edge too quickly.
 
bkultra said:
Ceramic, dimpling, santoku... Three strikes

Santoku, I'll just leave that one alone.
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Did santoku kill your friends and family :p? Santokus are great, especially 180mm if you need a smaller knife.
 
daveb said:
Dimples help money fall off of wallets.

The Kiwi might actually work for you. They're so thin that they feel sharp for awhile and they are priced as throwaways. You could probably fill up a sack for L50.
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This!!!

The theory behind a dimple, i.e. air gap, is sound. The practicality fails. They allow way too much surface area for product to stick. Dimpled all over, like a tsuchime finish may achieve this.
 
daveb said:
Santokus are for the ladies. "Chicks" is so primitive and "Girls" is a throwback to another era.
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Based on my new theory, lady is sexist. Diminutive of a lad if you ask me....
 
I think it's the extreme commercial popularity of the shape. It's advertised as the end all be all do everything exceptionally well knife when in reality it's just average at anything and there isn't one task it does better than any other shape. Plus it's for girls.
 
ThEoRy said:
I think it's the extreme commercial popularity of the shape. It's advertised as the end all be all do everything exceptionally well knife when in reality it's just average at anything and there isn't one task it does better than any other shape. Plus it's for girls.
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What he said.
 
Yep, and "ladies" has a terrible ring of social adequacy and conservative honour/status to it....

I don't cut up any so can't say if a santoku is best ...
 
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