Kyocera Knives & Diamond Sharpener Today’s episode is slightly different and takes the form of a product review. Kyocera was kind enough to send me a box of their products to try. This review is not paid for by Kyocera, and they will not be viewing it or approving it before it airs. Kyocera make a whole range of ceramic knives to suit just about any application. The knife they sent me is their kitchen utility knife.
It comes well presented in a cardboard retail package, with the blade folded in another protective layer of board. Unlike many other brands that a mass-produced and brand engineered by third party producers, the Kyocera knives are actually manufactured by Kyocera themselves in Japan. To clarify, the ceramic blades are manufactured by Kyocera in Japan, after which they are shipped to China to have the handles manufactured and then retail packed. This is obviously done to uphold the premium quality of the blades, while containing the end price of the products.
Unlike other brands of ceramic knives, the Kyocera knives do have a bit of flex in the blade, however they have rounded of the tip of the blade, as this is always the first part to break or chip on any ceramic knife. Interestingly, they have sharpened the rounded end of the blade to compensate for the blade not having a pointed tip.
As you can see, this blade is insanely sharp. I would say it is probably scalpel sharp, maybe even too sharp. This is not a negative point as you can allow it to dull slightly, and then maintain the level of sharpness you are comfortable with, using the Kyocera diamond sharpener.
This brings us to the next point. Sharpening ceramic knives has always been a problem. Regular knife steels don’t work at all as the zirconia ceramic is harder than steel. Kyocera have come up with the solution. They also manufacture a pull-through roller sharpener. The roller is made from #1000 grit, or 18 micron diamond dust, with a pre-set sharpening angle making it a breeze to sharpen your knives. Kyocera don’t recommend that the charpener be used to sharpen regular knives. I am not going to try to blunt the knife by cutting mountains of cardboard, as you would not do this to your kitchen knives unless you’re mentally disturbed. Instead, I am going to put this knife through it paces for a week or two, and then I will do a follow-up episode giving you the real-life use results and my impressions on this product, and the Kyocera diamond sharpener.
I have included links to both the knives and sharpener below in the description. That’s it for today folks, and we’ll see you again real soon. Check out Kyocera’s range of knives here
