Ceramic Kitchen Knives

With their headquarters in Kyoto, Japan the Kyocera Corporation is one of the world's leading manufacturers of fine ceramic components for the technology industry. Kyocera started life in 1959 and was known as Kyoto Ceramic Company Ltd. Kyocera Corporation is the world's leading brand in ceramic knives.

Kyocera knives were launched in Japan in 1984. Despite their highly technical production, Kyocera believe nothing can replace skilled craftsmanship and many years experience, therefore all Kyocera ceramic knives are individually ground by hand.

Ceramic knives are extremely hard wearing and are second only to diamonds in terms of hardness. Ceramic knives are astonishingly sharp and will not require home sharpening.

To sharpen your knives, contact your retailer where you purchased them from and they will give you the details of the manufacturer or distributor and they can be professionally sharpened. Do not attempt to sharpen your ceramic knives at home with a steel, manual or electric knife sharpener, this will damage the blade and invalidate any warranty on your ceramic knives.

Kyocera uses a zirconia ceramic material of high quality in its ceramic kitchen knife blades. This ensures long lasting extreme sharpness of your knives. Zirconia ceramic is also used for applications in aerospace the motor and medical industries.

Kyocera knives give you ultra lightweight knives, maintenance free ceramic knives, confidence in a brand leader of ceramic knives, unrelenting sharpness, exceptional purity and the perfect complement to your traditional steel knives.

Ceramic knives should not replace your steel knives, just compliment them. This will ensure that you have the best possible kitchen knife for every job in your kitchen.

The FK White series of knives is the best selling range from Kyocera. The range has a white ceramic blade with a black or coloured handle.

The superior ceramic material used in Kyocera knives gives every knife a better edge retention.

Ceramic knives offer a ceramic blade which has unprecedented purity. The surface of the ceramic blade is resistant to kitchen acids, salts and oils and resists germs. This makes the knife easy to clean. Ceramic knives can go into the dishwasher, however simply wash them by hand and dry them with a soft clean cloth, if they are hit by hard blows or knock against other items in the machine this will damage your ceramic knives.

Kyocera knives have a metal insert within the handle so they cannot pass undetected through metal detector scanners.

Ceramic knives are perfect for slicing boneless meats, fruits and vegetables and buy adding them to your collection of steel kitchen knives you will the perfect collection of kitchen knives.

Ceramic kitchen knives do not take the flavour or odour of the ingredients you are cutting.

Ceramic kitchen knives are extremely light weight which reduces manual fatigue when cutting for long periods of time which makes them extremely popular with professional chefs.

The following tips should be followed to ensure the long life of your ceramic knives:-

• Do not drop your ceramic knives onto the floor; the blade may snap or shatter.
• Do not use your ceramic knives for opening lids
• Do not tilt your ceramic knives when cutting
• Do not cut frozen foods or foods with bones with your ceramic knife

It is advisable to keep you ceramic knives in a knife block, rather than in your kitchen drawer. Your ceramic knives may become chipped when in contact with other kitchen knives and kitchen cutlery.

From the UK distributor Dexam International Ltd there are 9 Kyocera FK White Series ceramic knives available in the range.

Listed below are the knives currently available and what job they would be used for:

• A ceramic paring knife is normally used as a small chef's knife. If using a normal chef's knife it would probably be too large for the task in hand. Hulling and slicing strawberries, dicing shallots and slicing button mushrooms would be perfect jobs for a ceramic paring knife.


• A ceramic vegetable knife would be used for as it says cutting smaller vegetables and fruits; courgettes, carrots, lemons, oranges - the list is endless!


• A ceramic tomato knife would again be used for as it says tomatoes. A tomato knife has a serrated edged which enables the tomato skin to be pierced and then the tomato sliced rather than just crushing the tomato with a non-serrated knife. Ceramic tomato knives can also be used on soft fruits, including kiwis.


• A ceramic slicing knife would be used for slicing vegetables, meat without any bones, really anything you would slicing that has no hard contents. They can also be used for carving meat.


• The ceramic chef's knife is available in two sizes in the Kyocera FK White Series range; it is purely down to preference and what ingredients you are chopping. Ceramic chef's knives are the most popular kitchen knife. If you own a chef's knife this will cover a multitude of tasks. Always ensure you do not use ceramic chef's knives for frozen foods or meat with bones. A chef's knife with a steel blade would be more suitable.


• A ceramic nakiri knife is a Japanese version of the Chinese clever. This is used for specialist tasks such as ribbons of cucumber. The blade is normally double bevelled. The blade on a nakiri knife is not as broad as that of a Chinese cleaver.


• A ceramic santoku knife is very closely related to a chef's knife. The word santoku basically translates to "three virtues," meaning that it can be used to cut meat, fish or vegetables. Always remember not use your ceramic santoku knife to chop meat with bones or frozen meat. The santoku knife was a chef's knife adapted by the Japanese from a Western knife; the edge is straighter which suites Japanese style cutting rather than rocking. In Japan santoku knives are used within a domestic environment rather than the professional kitchen.


• A ceramic bread knife is a serrated knife that is great for cutting through bread crusts or any ingredient that has a hard exterior and soft interior.

This guide will give you some helpful and technical tips to buying your ceramic knives.