Seems these are becoming more available now, as well as a bit more affordable (£30 for a single white knife or £40 for one of the black ones still isnt exactly cheap by some). I was wondering if anyone own or had tried one?

Ive seen cheap ones on DealExtreme, also curious if they are any good.

I had a ceramic potato pealer.. f**king great until it snapped (not the ceramic)

Whats the benefits, surely a decent steel will last a lifetime if looked after properly?

The only advantage I can see is that these do not need sharpening as much, but they are also brittle.

The blades arent quite as brittle as they might be, the advantage is they dont rust, dont absorb flavours from food, or taint it with a metallic taste.

They are also extremely sharp and hard, about half way between steel and diamond. It takes a fair bit to blunt one, but they arent recommended for un-boned meat. The black ones are harder than the white ones due to extra processing.

Sashimi chefs use them for slicing fish.

http://www.mingspantry.com/kyoccerkniff.html

Intriguing, who is taking the plunge with DX then?  :mutley:

Quote from: matt5cottIntriguing, who is taking the plunge with DX then?  :mutley:

ive been tempted a few times, but worried about customs

I wouldnt worry too much. When I was back at college I got all manner of knives sent to me from America via ebay. Some of which arguably may not have been legal at the time due to the "assisted opening" mechanisms involved. They never got pulled up by customs, though I did wonder if I was on a govt. watchlist or something.

Quote from: Eggtastico

Quote from: matt5cottIntriguing, who is taking the plunge with DX then?  :mutley:

ive been tempted a few times, but worried about customs

"That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me! You know what that is? Its a porcelain gun made in Germany. It doesnt show up on your airport X-ray machines, and it cost more than you make here in a month."

Theyre Awesome.  I still have 3 I picked up when I was working a chef in 1999/2000.  Got a Filleting knife, standard carver and small vegetable knife.  All very nice to use, though at the time the Special "Please recommend us to your other pubs" discount was about £100 for the large one, and about £75 each for the others.

Quote from: BeakerTheyre Awesome.  I still have 3 I picked up when I was working a chef in 1999/2000.  Got a Filleting knife, standard carver and small vegetable knife.  All very nice to use, though at the time the Special "Please recommend us to your other pubs" discount was about £100 for the large one, and about £75 each for the others.

I never got on with ceramic knives for filleting, they didnt seem to flex enough to do the job properly.

Ceramic blades are also used in bomb disposal for conductivity reasons.

Quote from: Chris H

Quote from: BeakerTheyre Awesome.  I still have 3 I picked up when I was working a chef in 1999/2000.  Got a Filleting knife, standard carver and small vegetable knife.  All very nice to use, though at the time the Special "Please recommend us to your other pubs" discount was about £100 for the large one, and about £75 each for the others.

I never got on with ceramic knives for filleting, they didnt seem to flex enough to do the job properly.

to be fair it wasnt much good for filleting for that reason, where it did pay for itself was cutting shapes in to veg and fruit for a "nice" finish.  

Quote from: matt5cott

Quote from: Eggtastico

Quote from: matt5cottIntriguing, who is taking the plunge with DX then?  :mutley:

ive been tempted a few times, but worried about customs

(Image removed from quote.)

"That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me! You know what that is? Its a porcelain gun made in Germany. It doesnt show up on your airport X-ray machines, and it cost more than you make here in a month."

Youd be surprised at what I make in a month.