Kyocera Kuroba Ceramic Paring Knife 7.5cm. Blade made from Zirconia material. Ultra lightweight. Ergonomic Handle. Holds sharp knife edge 10x longer than steel blades. Resistant to Acid.

I'm not a chef nor do I cook all the time, but when I do, I like to have a sharp knife. I was fed up with buying knives and then sharpening them each time I wanted to cook with them. After watching a program about the Kyocera Knives on the Discovery Channel I was interested and wanted to buy one. It helps material is mined from Western Australia, where we are moving too, so felt a connection, oddly. So with my 30th Birthday money, I decided to buy one. After looking at my other knives and working out which size I wanted and would use the most and looking at the colour (As black is tougher) I went with the 16cm Black Chefs Knife. When it arrived I was pleased with the looks and couldn't wait to try it out. It is as it says, sharp, although possibly not as sharp as I was expecting, although will cut through fruit and veg with great ease. I have also used it to carve a chicken, but being extremely careful not to go near any bones. The packaging states not to be used on Meat with bones or Cheese and also not to be used on glass or marble chopping boards. I do find it annoying still that I still need to use other knives to chop certain things. Storage could be an issue. Currently I am keeping it in the original packaging out of the reach of the wife and kids as I have heard they are fragile if dropped and of course sharp. My wife doesn't want to go near it encase she drops it anyway. It would be handy if I had a holder on the wall for the knife, but can't justify a holder for one knife and I cant justify buying another two knives! Cleaning is easy, you just rinse and wipe carefully. Obviously keeping fingers clear of the blade edge. I am yet to cut myself which is a bonus and I have to say I like it, because every time I use it, I find myself smiling at how easy it cuts through fruit and veg.

Good size for delicate use.

This knife has really changed the way I deal with knives. My wife and I use this knife for the vast majority of our cutting tasks. I also have the small Kyocera slicing knife, and although it is equally sharp, this one is easier to use because it is larger. The bigger blade allows you to stroke through something as opposed to just slicing it. I still use metal knives for anything that is abusive such as cutting meat with bones or cuts that require a twisting motion, but for almost everything this knife is amazing. The ceramic edge after about a year of use is just about as sharp as when I first got it. If this was a metal knife, I would have to sharpen it every week to maintain an edge that probably still wouldn't match the sharpness of this blade. It seems that to dull one off these blades you have to chip it, this can be done fairly easily if you don't know what you are doing. This may be the reason that Kyocera has a sharpening program. They claim they can grind out the tiny chips that occur over time. My first ceramic knife, the slicing knife has some chips in it, that was our training blade, this knife has none because we know what we are doing now. I would bet the tip is rounded to prevent chipping as well as promote safety. Don't let the fragility of the blade scare you, when you use it for the first time you will probably start laughing. Then you will laugh again every time you use a knife at someone else's house. The sharpness isn't the important thing here, I can sharpen a metal knife to nearly the same sharpness, what is important is that this thing STAYS sharp. Metal knives must be sharpened with every use if they want to compete with this. This blade is very light and it looks great. Since the blade is quite broad, you will need a really big knife block if its going to fit into a slot. The black version looks a lot cooler than the white one and it doesn't show the staining that can occurs if you leave certain juices on the blade overnight. Don't throw away your original package! Kyocera has a free sharpening program, but you will need to send them your knife. The packaging it comes in can handle this for you. I got this idea from a you tube review of their sharpening program.

I'm permanently terrified of inadvertently dropping this or snapping the blade in some way, so I've treated it very gently, but after a month or so, it's still impressively sharp (more so than it feels, because there aren't the uneven sharpening edges you get on a metal blade) - more so than I ever got a steel knife to stay except if I resorted to a whetstone. The biggest issue I have is that food sticks to it much more than the colour-coated steel knife I used before, so I tend to throw the things I'm chopping around with an upswing and there's more resistance as I go through moist items; I can't vouch for how it compares to a naked steel blade. I've not tried sharpening it yet (I have the Kyocera sharpener), but nor have I needed to - though I don't expect it to last forever. I'd have dulled a steel blade by now! Oh, and I've had to resort to the blade guard for crushing garlic. It's weird how light this is compared with a metal blade, but it's worked very well so far.

E' il secondo che compro, ne avevo comprato uno identico dieci anni fa ma che mi si e' rotto per un uso (non mio...) maldestro. Sono sempre stato appassionato di coltelli e per anni sono stato anche rivenditore autorizzato Zwiling a Milano. Questo coltello non si puo' dire che tagli meglio di un ottimo coltello in acciaio perche' non e' questa la sua qualita' principale. Il suo pregio e' che ha bisogno di pochissima manutenzione inteso come asciugatura (perche' quelli in acciaio andrebbero sempre asciugati subito dopo essere stati utilizzati o lavati e non lasciati nella lavastoviglie magari ore) e come affilatura. Il filo di questi coltelli Kyocera durano anni senza nessun tipo di mantenimento (mi raccomando non usate assolutamente acciaini o cose simili) o riaffilatura (nel caso assicuratevi di portarlo da una persona esperta ma non prima di 7/8 anni ma dipende anche dall'uso che se ne fa). Fondamentale per la vita di questo coltello (e anche di molti altri in acciaio), non esercitare nessun tipo di pressione laterale e stare attenti agli urti e non farlo cadere. Perche' il coltello possa avere una vita lunga sotto il punto di vista del taglio e della sua precisione, ma questo vale per tutti, e' *fondamentale* che il coltello che si e' acquistato tagli le cose per le quali e' stato costruito (altrimenti non ci sarebbero cosi' tanti tipi di coltelli...) e non tutto indiscriminatamente. Nello specifico questo e' si', un coltello multi uso, ma non per questo adatto a tagliare tutto. Questo e' idoneo per tagli di precisione, affettare salumi, carne e alcuni tipi di verdure. Assolutamente sconsigliato per tagliare il pane, i pomodori o verdura/frutta con bucce dure come melone, cocomero ananas etc... Pochi sanno che la crosta del pane e la buccia del pomodoro sono micidiali per il filo dei coltelli (tutti non solo quelli in ceramica) e per questo motivo per questi due generi sono indicati dei coltelli seghettatura per il pane e con micro-seghettatura per il pomodoro. Consiglio sicuramente questo Kyocera se viene espressamente utilizzato per affettare anche se il prezzo non e' proprio invitante, ma viene ripagato in qualita', precisione e senza mai cali di filo. Se invece non vi curate molto dell'utilizzo del coltello e di cosa ci tagliate volete un coltello "da battaglia" allora non consiglio l'acquisto, sarebbe sprecato.