Miyako Ceramic Knives Review

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Miyako Ceramic Knives are the latest additions to my collection and my proudest discovery yet. Why? Simply for their 5 star quality at affordable prices.

DETAILS

Miyako Ceramics offer a good selection of ceramic knives. The decision on which ceramic knife to buy was a little difficult. Give a woman too many choices and she will never decide! 😛 I ended up purchasing the gift set directly on their website at www.miyakoceramics.com. The set included a 3 inch paring knife, a 5 inch slicing knife and a 6 inch chef’s knife for $74.99. This was a great deal considering I paid more for my 6 inch Kyocera.

The knives came in a handsome black box with foam insert. The packaging looks more like a gift box and certainly not something I would throw in the trash bin. If I didn’t already have a knife block, I would certainly use the box to store the knives.

Upon opening the box, the first thing to catch my eye were the shiny blades. They’re beautiful! There is a very polished, glossy finish to it with a reflective sheen. This gave the knives a stunning appearance, something I have not seen before in the ceramic knife industry.

The handles on these ceramic knives have a simple ergonomic design, with dips and curves in all the right places. What really caught my attention was the feel of the handle. It has a soft, velvety feel to it. The handle is so comfortable that it seems to disappear in my hands.

PERFORMANCE

With all the oohhs and aahhs of its appearance, I was hoping it wasn’t just another pretty face in the ceramic knife market. I immediately put these knives through daily kitchen duty. Each knife in the 3 piece set had its fair share of work and each one performed exceptionally well. The sharpness of the ceramic knives was quite impressive. It’s on par with my Kyocera’s and sharper than every other ceramic knife I have in my collection. It easily handled everything I tried to cut with it. After 45 days of almost daily use, it has still retained its original sharpness.

THE FINAL VERDICT

Miyako Ceramics’ line of knives is one of the best value you’ll find in this market. They are skimpy on price but not skimpy on quality. It’s obvious that there was a lot of attention put into every small detail of the knives. The glossy blade, soft ergonomic handle and razor edge all add up to a fine piece of cutlery.

While I bought the knife set for its value, I expected nothing more than mediocre ceramic knives. Lo and behold, I was pleasantly surprised to have found a winner. I highly recommend these ceramic knives for anyone looking for a great set of knives that won’t break the bank.

IKEA Mussla Ceramic Knives

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IKEA has released its version of the ceramic knife. They offer a 2 knife gift set retailed at $39.99. Not a bad price for 2 large ceramic knives. Does it live up to high standards? Or is this a typical mass produced IKEA product? We’ve review them here.

DETAILS

Blade material: Zirconium-Oxide
Handle Material: ABS plastic
Size: 5 inch vegetable knife & 6 inch Japanese kitchen knife
Origin: China
Cleaning & Care: Hand wash with mild dish soap

PERFORMANCE

The edge of the knife appeared to be well honed. The blade was sharp out of the box and had a nice feel to them. It sliced through food with relative ease. These knives cut as clean as the Kobe ceramic knife we reviewed, but nothing close to how sharp we expect a ceramic knife to be.

The handles are made of an ABS plastic. They felt very hard in the hand, with not much give. The design and shape of the handles felt a bit awkward, putting the arm and wrist in a less than normal position. IKEA seemed to design the handles for appearance rather than comfort. We are not sure if the ridges in the handle are a design element, or if they are for added grip. They didn’t help much in terms of the grip.

DURABILITY

We used this set of knives exclusively for 6 weeks. The handle held up well to daily use and washing. There were no signs of wear. The blade and handle remained firmly attached to each other.

The blade was a different story. The 5 inch white ceramic knife held up after daily use. We could tell it was getting dull, but it was still sharp and did not require any sharpening. We did notice that there were already 4 small chips on the edge of the blade!

The 6 inch Japanese knife seemed to dull within a week. We visually inspected the knife and found it had 12 tiny chips on the blade! We treated these knife with the same care we treat all of our ceramic knives. These particular knifes were a lot more susceptible to chipping than any other ceramic knife we have used. We will attempt to return this one for a replacement and we will rerun our test.

THE FINAL VERDICT

This ceramic knife set by IKEA is well priced. The white blade held up to daily use without any immediate problems but the fact that we already had 4 chips on the edge in such a short amount of time makes me worry. The black blade seemed to have problems almost too soon. It would be hard to recommend these knives to anyone due to the amount of problems we saw on both knives. We can accept the fact that we may have simply received a bad set of ceramic knives. We are going to attempt to exchange these for a new set. Stay tuned, we will post an update.

Yoshi Blade Review

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The Yoshi Blade is a ceramic knife that can be found on TV and many local stores around town. Their commercial makes many of the claims that hold true to ceramic knives (sharpness, durability, sanitary, etc). They are a new comer in the ceramic knife industry, and of course, we had to get our hands on one.

DETAILS

We purchased our set online for $19.99. The set came with a 5 inch ceramic knife and a ceramic peeler. It didn’t seem like a bad price, but up checkout, we quickly realized that there was a $9.99 shipping and handling charge, ouch… The knife featured a plastic handle with a 5 inch ceramic blade, and a peeler that felt like it was made of similar materials.

Upon initial inspection, the knife and peeler felt like typical ceramic knives. The blade felt sharp and the handle felt firmly secured to the blade. We did notice the edges of the peeler and knife had stray plastic hanging off it. We put the peeler on the white ceramic knife to make it more visible in the photo, click on it for a close up. It seemed like the factory didn’t clean the edges well after they were made. Also, although the handle is smooth, there are several indentations in it. Both are signs of a highly mass produced product with low quality assurance.

PERFORMANCE

The Yoshi Blade felt strange in the hand. The handle is tall and narrow which made it hard to get a firm grip on. The sharpness of the blade was average at best, not the most sharp knife we have used, but also not the dullest either. It didn’t have much problem cutting through most of the food we threw at it, but we tried to skin a pineapple the same way they did in the commercial, and it did not work as well as it looked.

There is a serious design flaw that we could not over look. The handle of the knife extends past the bottom of the blade. This caused two problems during normal cutting. 1) Only the front part of the blade can ever make contact with the cutting board. 2) When holding the knife in a normal cutting position, the unusually wide handle causes your knuckles to hit the cutting board. Notice the space between the blade and the cutting board in the photo. It seems like the manufacturer didn’t take any of this into account when the knives were designed. This design flaw made the knife very difficult to use.

THE FINAL VERDICT

At $19.99, the Yoshi Blade is a good bargain. After shipping and handling, the price was closer to $30 which made it about average price. The blade was was average sharpness for a ceramic knife. Other than the design flaw in the handle, the knife is a typical ceramic knife on the market. At $20 MSRP, you’ll get what you pay for.

Proper Care For Ceramic Knives

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The majority of questions we receive from this site seem to have a common theme. Most of our readers are looking for instructions on how to properly care for their ceramic knives. Most manufacturers will include a set of instructions with their knives, but in all honestly, the care instructions are the same across all knives. Here is our officially, unofficial guide on how to care for your ceramic knives.

PROPER USE:

  • Use your ceramic knife for slicing or cutting soft foods only (fruits, vegetables, boneless meats, etc).
  • Use a softer cutting board only, plastic, wood and bamboo work well. Avoid glass and marble cutting boards.
  • Never use the knife as a tool other than a knife. Never use it to pry anything open, or to cut plastic packaging.
  • Do not use the side of the blade to smash anything such as garlic, herbs, etc.

CARE:

A quick rinse with a mild detergent is all that is needed to keep your knife clean. After cutting non greasy food such as fruits or veggies, I sometimes just give it a rinse in warm water, no detergent. Since the surface is non-porous, cleaning is a breeze. Never put your ceramic knives in the dishwasher. The high pressure water can cause the knife to rattle against other items in the machine, causing it to chip.

STORAGE:

Store your ceramic knives in a knife block or knife tray. When storing or removing the knife, be careful not to damage the edge or tip.

WHY DO I HAVE TO BE SO CAREFUL WITH CERAMIC KNIVES?

After reading this, I know what you’re thinking, “This knife needs to be treated like a princess!”. Think about it a bit and you’ll realize that ALL nice knives (metal or ceramic) should be treated with these same instructions.

I decided to dig up some care instructions for some popular steel knives on the market.You will see some similarities.

[legend title=”SHUN KNIVES” style=”1″]Please do not use Shun knives other than the Ken Onion meat cleaver on bones or joints. These knives are designed for precision slicing rather than chopping through bones. One key to keeping a Shun (or any other knife) sharp is to use an appropriate cutting surface. These include wood, bamboo, and polypropylene, all of which are softer materials and will “give” under the blade. Technically, yes. Both the blades and the PakkaWood® handles can stand up to the rigors of the dishwasher. However, we generally recommend against it. Here’s why: The dishwasher can be hard on all your dishes, but it can be especially hard on knives because they tend to get knocked around during the cycle.[/legend]

[legend title=”GLOBAL KNIVES” style=”1″]It is recommended that you wash your Global knives by hand using a mild dish washing liquid and water. After washing, rinse with water and dry thoroughly with a towel. Global knives should NOT be put in the dishwasher. Global recommends the use of the Global knife blocks, magnetic wall racks, knife docks or knife rolls/cases. DO NOT attempt to cut through frozen foods or bones. DO NOT use these knifes for any purpose other than for what they were intended, i.e., the preparation of food. Under no circumstances should they be used as a screwdriver, crowbar or wire cutter DO NOT cut on a marble, stone, tile or glass surface.[/legend]
[legend title=”VICTORINOX” style=”1″]Safety is the biggest concern of storage, both to the user and to protect the knife edge itself. Choices include a knife magnet, knife block, drawer insets, and also individual knife protectors.Quality knives should not go in the dishwasher. The heat and the agitation are not good for the edge.[/legend]

As you can see, you were right, TREAT YOUR KNIVES LIKE A PRINCESS!

How Do They Make Ceramic Knives?

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How are ceramic knives made? It’s no easy task, but with today’s technology, it seems easy. The process is a mixture of old school techniques combined with a bit of modern technology.

The raw materials (mostly water and ceramic powder), are mixed in a drum, not the musical instrument but something similar to a sealed cement mixer. This part of the process creates uniform particles. The more uniform in size, the harder the material can be pressed. The liquid mixture is then sprayed onto a flat surface and then dried. Once all the liquid is gone, only a fine powder remains. This is the base for the ceramic knife blade.

The fine powder is then poured into a knife shape mold. The mold is then pressed to over 10,000 psi. The pressure turns the powder into a solid piece which will eventually become the ceramic blade.

The blade is then removed from the mold and fired in a kiln at around 1400 degrees celsius. This is a similar process to used to fire traditional ceramics except a more controlled temperature setting is used here. During this process the knife will shrink about 1/4 its original size. The material becomes very dense and super hard.

The edge is then sharpened using a diamond coated sharpening wheel, a handle is attached to the end and you have yourself a ceramic knife.

The differences you will find in the hardness of a ceramic knife is usually due to changes in 2 variables, the amount of pressure that is used and the amount of heat. More pressure and a more precise temperature will result in a higher quality material.

How sharp the knife is boils down to how much time and effort is put in during the sharpening precess. If the ceramic material is of high quality, the manufacturer can sharpen the edge a lot finer without the risk of chipping. If the material is not hard enough, the manufacturer will usually refrain from sharpening it too much due to the risk of lowering its durability.

Although most ceramic knives look the same, they are not all created the same. There are many high quality ceramic knives on the market, but there are also a lot of low quality ceramic knives too.

Kyocera Ceramic Knife Sharpener

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UPDATE: This ceramic knife sharpener is now avaiable in the United States.

Japan is know for having all the best gadgets before we get them here in the states. During all my visits to Japan, I am always so excited to bring back something neat. This trip didn’t disappoint at all. Along with the bags full kitchen gadgets, I came back with something I never knew existed, a Kyocera Knife Sharpener that is designed to work with metal AND ceramic knives.

As we all know, a ceramic knife is not supposed to ever get dull. I have yet to have a ceramic knife require sharpening because it was dull. However, I have had the blade chip. Although the knife still works perfectly with a few chips, the accumulation of many chips can deteriorate it’s performance.

Kyocera offers free knife sharpening, just pay $10 and the ship the knives to them (up to two knives). Their service is relatively speedy, but… not as fast as sharpening them at home.

I paid the equivalent of about 60 U.S. dollars for the sharpener. A bit pricey for a knife sharpener but I had to have it! 🙂 The sharpener is powered by 4 AA batteries and contains 2 diamond coated sharpening wheels. There are 2 guides to slide the knife through. Each guide hones 1 side of the knife. The guide keeps the knife at the correct angle so there is no guesswork involved.

I have a very low end ceramic knife that was given to me. The blade was never sharp from the day I received it. It was a very poor design with no brand on it. I pulled the ceramic knife through each guide twice and felt the wheels making contact with the blade. To my surprise, it only took 2 pulls on each side to get a super sharp knife! This diamond coated wheel actually worked quite well. The cheap ceramic knife I have is actually very sharp and usable.

I also tried to sharpen a ceramic knife that had 3 chips on the blade. One of the chips was rather big. I pulled the knife through the sharpener a few tips on each side. 2 of the 3 chips are gone but the larger chip but it was a lot smaller, probably less than 25% it’s original size. The knife now feels as sharp as new!

Although $60 is a lot to spend on a plastic knife sharpener, it is a fun gadget for anyone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen. Since this sharpener works on metal knives as well, it’s existence in your kitchen can be a bit more justified. If you own several ceramic knives, this sharpener is almost a must have. I’m not sure how I lived without it. It literally takes less than 20 seconds to sharpen a knife, and the results are excellent.

We could not find this available in the U.S. yet. Rumor has it that it will be here soon. We’ll keep looking and keep you updated on what we find.

 

Hey, Keep My Knives Safe

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After purchasing a few ceramic knives, I realized I didn’t have anywhere safe to store them. A knife block worried me too much about the possibility of chipping the blade against the hard wood. My knife drawer wasn’t even a consideration. Metal vs ceramic clinging together in a drawer didn’t settle right for me.

Then I came across this beauty. A knife block with universal slots! And the slots were made of plastic. Plastic vs ceramic, I’ll take ceramic as the one that will inflict the most damage to it’s counter part. Since I bought it, I’ve been using it to hold all my ceramic knives and they have all stayed in tip top shape.

The Kapoosh Knife Holder is made of stainless steel and adds a very modern look to the kitchen. What makes this different than any other knife block in the market is the way it hold the knives. Instead of pre cut slots to hold knives of a specific size, this block contains hundreds of soft plastic rods that allow you to put knives in any position in the block.

This YouTube video explains how it works. Let me warn you, the video is cheesy! 🙂

I have heard of people having problems with this block. In particular, it has problems with large knives such as cleavers and butcher’s knives. I can see how this could be an issue. I’d recommend using it to for your more expensive knives and keeping your cleavers elsewhere. I use my Kapoosh knife block for my ceramic knives only. It does a nice job of keeping them safe and it’s almost become a center of attention in my kitchen. It just looks so nice!

Ceramic Knives Keep Apples Fresh?

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I was talking to a chef friend of mine who also uses a few ceramic kitchen knives. I asked him what he really likes about it. Aside from its sharpness, he also mentioned that his fruits don’t oxidize and turn brown as fast when he uses his ceramic knife to cut it, particularly apples. I knew ceramic knives are chemically inert, and that they’re not supposed to react with your food, but I thought it was in regards to taste, not color!

You probably guessed what I did next. I headed straight to the supermarket and picked up some apples to test this theory. I was really skeptical about the whole thing. But then again, the advice was from a professional chef who uses ceramic knives daily. He wasn’t trying to sell me any knives, he was just being a pal and sharing his knowledge.

I started by cutting one with a $150, newly sharpened Henkels knife and the other with my ceramic knife. I let them sit, taking pictures in random intervals. The results made me say “Oh my gosh!” The apple cut with the regular kitchen knife did indeed turn brown a lot faster than the one I cut with the ceramic knife! See the images below and click on them to enlarge.

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After about 15 minutes, the apple wedge cut with the ceramic knife hardly oxidized at all, while the slice cut with the kitchen knife already showed some signs of discoloration. After about an hour and 10 minutes into the test, the differences became very apparent as you can see from the pictures.

I left the apple wedges out even after I was done with the test. The next morning, I was even more surprised at what I saw. The slice cut with the ceramic knife remained in the same condition it was the night before! There was no further discoloration or oxidation. I was amazed!

To be honest, I didn’t think this would really work, but as you can see from the images, it truly does! Now I can feel confident about cutting fruits ahead of time without having to worry about oxidation. Through the couple of weeks I’ve used a ceramic knife, this test really amazed me more than any others. Moving forward with my test, I don’t think anything will amaze me more than this.

Do Ceramic Knives Keep Avocados From Turning Brown?

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We have received many many requests to do the ceramic knife & apples test using avocados, so how could we resist? We were actually quite interested in the results too.

For this test we did a similar setup as the apples test. We took 1 avocado and cut one end off with a metal knife and one end with a ceramic knife. We left the pieces out and took pictures at random.

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When I cut avocados for any dish I am making, they seem to go brown almost instantly. I began this test thinking that it would be a quick test and that I would be done in about an hour or so. Boy was I wrong. I didn’t see much happen until the 7:23pm mark, around 2.5 hours into it.

Over the course of the next 2 hours, things started getting very interesting. The brown spots on the avocado cut with the metal knife began growing and spreading. The piece that was cut with the ceramic knife began showing brown spots but the spots were not as defined and did not seem to merge with each other. The last image shot over 5.5 hours later (9:42 mark), shows some obvious differences in color and spots.

Like the apple test we performed, I had my doubts about this. To be honest I had more doubts about this test than I did with the previous. The results do show that the ceramic knife does make a difference.

Remember, I am not a scientist, nor do I claim to be one. This test was not performed in any special lab, although some of the food in my fridge can be mistaken for a science project. Use your own judgment based on the information I have provided you. And..If you like our tests, let us know. If you have any requests, don’t hesitate to ask, we love to hear from you!

No Tears Cutting Onions?

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I’m making Gyudon beef bowls tonight. It’s my first attempt and already I’m a little terrified just by looking at the recipe. The recipe calls for a good amount of onions. We all know what that means…be prepared for a waterworks show! But rumor has it that using ceramic knives can cut down on those dreaded tears. Fact or fiction? Let’s put it to the test.

I bought the smallest onion I could find. As far as I know, the smaller, the fewer the tears. I begin by cutting off the ends and cutting it in half. So far so good! Next, I made thin slices and half-way through, I begin to tear up a little. Not too bad. I continue with the slicing. By this time, I’m left with teary eyes but not enough for tears to stream down my face. I must say, that was pretty awesome! That was the first good experience I’ve had with an onion.

I have only used my ceramic knife twice and I may already be convinced not to return it. It already seems to be superior to my regular kitchen knife. Just this experience alone is enough for me to keep it. I no longer have to be terrified of mincing onions. I don’t know the scientific reason behind how ceramic knives attribute to minimal tears. If I had to guess, it would simply be because of it’s razor sharp blade. Each slice is so clean and precise. That’s the trend I’ve been noticing with these knives. Again, there is no odor left behind. I’m already in love with ceramic knives!