Up to last week I'd have said "Of course not."
What a silly question!
After my Kyocera ceramic paring knife (top) arrived and I used it to slice some cheese — in the process slicing into my thumb not once but twice yet not realizing it for a couple seconds because the blade was so sharp I didn't feel it breaking my skin — I retired it to my knife rack.
Like the packaging (below) says:
UNRELENTING SHARPNESS
You can too!
antares
ReplyDeleteWhy ceramic knives are bad.
1. You cannot sharpen them. When they get dull, you must send them to a pro to be sharpened. What magic they do that you cannot, I don't know.
2. A ceramic chef's knive is defensible -- if you are a chef. IMO a ceramic paring knife is trouble looking for a time to happen. A paring knife is an extension of your wrist. To be used correctly, a paring knife must have a point -- something I have never seen done to my satisfaction on a ceramic blade. One technique for using a paring knife requires the chef to pull the blade through the work and into contact with the thumb. With a ceramic blade, that is begging for cuts.
3. My chef's knife is a Henckels with an eight-inch blade that I bought lo! when the world was young. Or younger. Always kept sharp.
In 1984, while cleaning the knife I slipped and the blade went into the index finger of my left hand. It stopped when it hit the bone. My wife drove me to the emergency room at the base hospital. (At that time, I was an Air Force officer.) The floor resident inspected my finger and said, "It doesn't look bad." So I squeezed the ends of the cut to reveal the bone. "Oh my God!" The doctor and a nurse dowsed the wound with Betadine and wiped off the excess. Inspected the cut again. Applied a butterfly bandage. "It's such a clean cut that stitches won't do more than this bandage. Leave it on for a week and come back for us to take it off." The bandage came off in the shower the third day. The wound had sealed. I did not return to the ER.
How clean was the cut? No scar. No loss of function.
Why this story? Just to let you know, Joe, that I been there, done that. Throw that ceramic paring knife away.
What paring knife to use?
First, get a textured handle, preferrably hard rubber. Why? The knife grip will get wet. You do NOT want it to slip when wet.
Second, how long should the blade be? Measure your index finger. Buy a blade a little shorter than your finger. Got a 4 inch finger? Buy a 3-1/2 inch blade.
Third, how to hold a paring knife. Three finger grip on the handle, thumb pressed against the blade at the the hilt, index finger alongside the blade or on the spine. That is the common grip. The index finger and thumb will change positions with some uses but the three finger grip will remain the same.