Ceramic vs Steel Knives: Which is Better?

Are you searching for some information about ceramic vs steel knives? Now you may hesitate to choose one of them. Both ceramic and steel knives have their advantages and disadvantages, but what you will select depends on your conditions and needs.

Don’t worry! With the detailed information below, we will help you find out what you need in this article.

What Is A Ceramic Knife? 

A ceramic knife is a knife that has a ceramic blade. People make the blade with zirconium oxide, also called Zirconia.

Ceramic blades are usually produced by dry-pressing and firing powdered Zirconia. Also, this process uses the solid-state sintering method.

Compared to an ordinary steel knife, a ceramic knife is much harder. It is so hard that people have to use grinding blades covered with diamond dust to grind them.

The hardness of Zirconia is 8.5 while that of diamonds and standard steel is 10 and 4. Hence, ceramic knives are harder than any steel knives.

Due to the ability to resist strong acids and caustic substances, ceramic knives are suitable to be kitchen knives for cutting boneless meat, vegetables, fruits, and bread. Also, these knives are compact because the material the blade includes is light.

However, ceramic knives aren’t suitable for cutting some kinds of food items such as bone, frozen food, or anything that can lead to chipping.

Although ceramic knives are hard, they are brittle. Therefore, knife blades can break if you drop it on a hard surface, although people reduce this risk by improved manufacturing processes.

Check Out The Best Ceramic Honing Rod

What Is A Steel Knife?

A steel knife is a knife whose material of its blade is steel, and there are a lot of types of steel knives. Of course, the material to produce the steel blade also varies, such as carbon steel, high-speed steel, stainless steel, sharp edge, and so on.

Nevertheless, all these materials share some features, for example, hardness, toughness, wear resistance, and edge retention. Hence, you can use a steel knife as a kitchen knife.

Depending on your needs, you can select the appropriate type of steel knives. Every kind of steel knife has its uses that will help you to get high efficiency in your work.

Unfortunately, the “best knife steel” is not merely the steel with the best characteristics as above. Because nothing is perfect, there must be trade-offs.

It is the stainless knife, which does not mean stainless knives will never be rusty, but means the blades will be rusty less or more. It depends on the environment and preservation.

So we have explained to you about the ceramic vs. steel knives. Now, we move to the next part to learn about the differences between ceramic vs. steel knives.

Ceramic Vs Steel Knives: The Differences 

The materials

The first difference between ceramic and steel knives is the material. A ceramic knife is made from a ceramic material called zirconium oxide or Zirconia, while people use steel to produce steel knives.

Ceramic vs. steel, steel varies in types and components to make the knives. As we mentioned, there are many different kinds of steel, so they have made many types with various uses. However, ceramic knives are not diverse in genre and composition.

The hardness

The hardness is the second difference. On the hardness scale, Zirconia – the material to make ceramic knives – is about 8.2 Mohs while steel is around 4 Mohs, and hardened steel is 8. The hardness of diamonds is as high as 10 Mohs. 

Therefore, we can see that ceramic is a stiff material right after diamonds.

The toughness

People are often confused with the hardness and toughness of ceramic and metal knives. However, they are not the same.

If a knife has high toughness, that means it isn’t breakable. In contrast, a tough knife will break easily when a hard surface affects it. Because the ceramic blade is harder than the steel knife, the ceramic one does not excel at its intended. 

For that reason, ceramic knives aren’t meant to cut hard food items, but steel knives are meant to cut hard things.

The sharpness

People design ceramic knives with a razor-sharp edge. That allows some sorts of food such as vegetables and fruit, or boneless meat to be easily sliced on the cutting boards. However, ceramic knives aren’t used to cut hard food.

Unlike steel knives, ceramic doesn’t lose that sharp edge quickly. On the other hand, people have to maintain steel knives regularly to keep them sharp.

The longevity of their edges

Is steel or ceramic more durable?

The answer is steel. That’s because steel is more shatterproof than ceramic. Hence, steel knives are tougher than ceramic ones.

Moreover, the stainless steel knife can anti-rust so that it can last longer than the ceramic knives.

How to sharpen?

Because ceramic knives are very hard, they can only use a diamond sharpener for sharpening knives. Meanwhile, you only need sharpening stones to do the work.

So to sharpen ceramic knives seems more difficult than to do it with steel blades.

Which Is Better? 

We cannot answer ceramic knives vs. steel knives, which are better because it depends on your needs and uses. Nevertheless, we can tell you which is more suitable.

For ceramic knives, they are super sharp and lightweight, which helps you quickly cut some ordinary food such as boneless meat or vegetables and fruit. If you have the intention of buying one to cut bones or frozen meat, it won’t take effect because it isn’t easily sliced. 

Cara Mangini – the author of “The Vegetable Butcher” says that ceramic knives may seem so easy to use at first. Still, when you work with a lot of vegetables, eventually, your arms and shoulders will end up doing most of the work if your knife is too light. Hence, they are not the replacement for chef knives.

If you want a chef knife, a steel knife will be the right choice. We often see steel knives in Japanese kitchens. Compared to a steel knife, it is a more durable knife. If you want a knife that you can use for a long time, buy steel knives. 

To Sum Up 

We have shown you a comparison: Ceramic vs steel knives. Have you made your decision?

We recommend that you should buy a ceramic knife if you want a super sharp and light knife. However, it won’t be an ideal knife to cut hard food. 

Instead, stainless steel knives would be better. With its durability, toughness, and corrosion resistance, a steel knife will be the right choice for your kitchen knife set. Thank you for reading!