Should I buy steel or ceramic knives?

Ceramic knives:

• cut
• get through metal detectors at night clubs

Steel knives:

• cut
• smash (garlic, ginger...)
• pry (potato eyes)
• look good
• scare burglars
• stick to metallic thingies on the wall
• don't scratch glass cutting boards (anyone cringing?)
• don't snap when thrown dropped.
• have zen-like qualities, sharpening them is pure meditation.
• have good mass, more control IMO.
• have rivets as a handy measurement reference for consistent length cuts
• have a spine you can hammer to get through that bone (now who's cringing?)

In general, ceramic knives are great for what they do, but too fragile to do everything. They can shatter if dropped on a hard surface, and can easily get get notched on bone. I use my ceramics exclusively for vegetables for that reason.

If you're strapped for funds, you really only need to by one expensive knife (a steel chef's knife or santoku), and one cheap one (a serrated knife for cutting bread). After that, picking up knife skills is more important and will make your cooking better than any investment in more knives.

First, I'll reinforce what others have said above: the ceramic knives are excellently sharp, don't need sharpening, and are very easy to clean. However, they are also very easy to damage or even break. The only ceramic knives I find worthwhile are paring knives and vegetable peelers, partly because both are cheap to replace when I inevitably break them.

For your steel knives, keep in mind that price and quality do not have a 1:1 relationship. Particulary, there are a couple brands of stamped (rather than drop-forged) steel knives which are surprisingly good quality and very affordable (one is Victrinox, I don't remember the other brand). Also, Chinese carbon steel cleavers are sharp, extremely versatile, and available for as little as $14 in any Asian hardware store.

Alternately, the major brands (Henkels, Wustof, Sabatier, etc.) often have sales at various stored (especially Macy's), dropping prices on select models by as much as 60%. So if you're patient, you can pay a lot less. I don't recommend Global knives for a beginner; their one-piece steel construction and flexible blades require a lot of getting used to in order to not injure yourself.

I've also gotten some tremendous deals on dulled premium knives second-hand from someone who didn't know how to sharpen them properly.

Do make sure to pick up a steel as part of your set, and use it regularly to keep your knives sharp. You should be steeling your knives every 3 uses (or so), and only sharpening them once every couple years.

The main reason ceramic knives became popular is because they're nonreactive with certain foods, especially acidic ones, and sushi chefs (the first real adopters -- probably no coincidence that Kyocera was the first to manufacture the blades on a large scale) felt that carbon steel reacting with the vinegar in the sushi dressing changed the flavor enough for some of their customers to notice. Now, in my opinion, the only people likely to know the difference are supertasters, and they aren't that common, but if you're one of them, you may notice the difference. Or you may not.

Overall, barring the sushi-and-tomato-obsessed supertaster scenario, ceramic vs. steel is a matter of personal taste. Although the price difference has narrowed substantially, the lack of reactivity combined with the difficulty of maintenance seems hardly worth it unless you happen to like the aesthetics and ergonomics of ceramic blades. (A paring knife might not hurt, though, if you want to try it out.)

Your very first set of knives should be steel knife. The reason is quite simple, whatever a ceramic knife can cut, a steel knife can cut. If I were you as you are moving for the first time, budget is probably your primary priority, I would buy a cheap set of knives with the promise of buying a real one when I have the budget for it later on in my life.

Now, you were wondering if there are reasons for you to buy a ceramic knife. I'd tell you that a ceramic knife is a great purchase. It is true, it is a bit more fragile than a steel knife, but if you are careful and use it wisely it will last long. What I personnaly do is I cut everything that I can cut with my ceramic knife, vegetables, fruits, boneless meat... All the rest I cut it with a steel knife, frozen meat, bones... The reason for this is that a ceramic knife remains sharp so much longer than a steel knife. I know that when I want to use my ceramic knife it will be sharp, it's never a problem. That way is use less my steel knife and it stays sharp longer as well. If you like your knives to be always extra sharp (why wouldn't you) a ceramic knife is a must!

If you need more information about ceramic vs steel you can read that post: http://bigbangretail.com/index.php/blog/ceramic-knives-vs-steel/

It really depends on both your budget and your personal taste. I personally use both.

I bought several ceramic knives in different sizes years ago. Due to the low price (5-10 bucks depending on knive size), I even bought spares, none of which I have yet to use. They're still very sharp and I use them most of the time for both meat, veggies and especially for anything with a lot of acid in it (steel hates acid, even stainless steel).

However, I do have an expensive japanese knife which I use if I want to cut really thin slices of meat, for instance. Honestly, that thing beats the ceramic knives I have easily in sharpness and ergonomics.

I do not own any expensive ceramic knives. They might be similarily great and there are ceramics that are pretty tough, too (as far as I know there are ceramic knives that can take 20+kg of weight applied to the side of the blade without damage).

In my honest opinion:

• If you have the choice between a cheap ceramic knive and a cheap steel knive, get the ceramic one.
• If you have a bit more money to spend: get a good steel knive. These are expensive, but well worth it if you take proper care of them. You can still get some cheap ceramic knives as an addition for food with a lot of acid in it.
• Certain (not quite so cheap) ceramic knives may be superior to steel knives. Though I couldn't actually test this yet as I'm quite content with the cheap ones and my good steel knive.

I agree with Dave Griffith. I have a set of ceramic knives. To me, ceramic knives have their pros and cons.

The pros are that I don't have to sharpen them often, they are sharp and light weight. The cons are that you can't cut hard things, it will chop the knife. So... I choose both of them...

BTW, the black blade ceramic knife looks very cool, HA?

Disclaimer: I work for a company that sells steel knives, and am a little bit biased.

I agree with others, ceramic blades are stronger than usual steel but unfortunately they are also more fragile because of being more brittle. That means that if you drop a ceramic knife or attempt to cut bone or frozen foods with one, it can break or chip.

Unlike steel knives which can be used for various slicing/dicing/chopping tasks, ceramic knives are limited in use mainly to slicing fruits, vegetables and boneless meats (generally - soft stuff).

According to some manufacturers, you can slice cheese with a ceramic knife, but I wouldn't believe them.

Different styles of steel knives affect function when it comes to boning, slicing or dicing. For instance, you would use a more flexible boning knife to debone chicken or filet fish (Deba type). And a Santoku or Nakiri knife is ideal for chopping, dicing and slicing onions, vegetables and numerous other cutting tasks.

Gyuto - a chef's knife is best for carving, slicing and so on. There's quite an assortment of blade lengths, styles and knife features when it comes to steel knives. There's also a diversity of knife handles.

Almost none of our customers (professional chefs) own a ceramic knife, they find it a worse option. But of course, if you have the choice between a cheap ceramic knife and a cheap steel knife, get the ceramic one.

However, if budget is not an issue: get a good Japanese knife. These are expensive, but well worth it if you take proper care of them (never put them in the dishwasher, always dry them after wash).

Hope this helps!

This might be half-OT, but I think some advice on critically reading claims made by ceramic knife manufacturers might help everyone.

Claims of "stays sharp x times longer than a steel knife".

This says nothing unless three variables are well defined:

• Which steel, temper, and edge geometry was used as a comparison- this can make a difference of at least an order of magnitude with a steel knife, probably even two if comparing extremes (say, a 420A steel with pessimal edge geometry against CPM 3V or blue paper steel with optimal edge geometry).
• What is acceptable as sharp - some ceramic knives come out of the box at a low level of sharpness that would prompt some carbon steel users to hone or sharpen.
• Which usage pattern is compared

Claims of "x times longer before you have to sharpen it"

• This leaves ambiguity between fully sharpening (building a new edge) and maintenance measures (honing steel, stropping. NONE SUCH available for ceramics).
• A knife that lasts "10 times or even 100 times longer" before reaching the point where a soft carbon steel knife - say, an old school french knife - would need a honing steel ... would be a very very NON durable implement, especially given that resharpening ceramics is not trivial, and maintenance measures are not possible.

Claims of "has been tested to last x times longer"

One of the widely used standard test procedures tests a completely different usage pattern, compared to how a cook uses a hand knife, by machine. The tested usage: cutting material that is very wearing on an edge repeatedly, but without hitting a hard surface at the end, and without jamming the knife or even intentionally cutting curves, so no torsional or lateral stress. Cook's usage: food is in most cases completely irrevelant for edge wear compared to the cutting board that is hit after cutting. Cuts are not always done perfectly straight. Neither is the cutting board always impacted straight.

Food doesnt't tend to ABRADE a blade much. The testing medium used in standard edge tests often is designed to abrade a steel blade horribly. Unless redesigned to do that to a ceramic blade, such a testing abrasive will be ineffective (unless it downright chips the blade).