Kyocera's ceramic peeler was one of the first (and last) ceramic cutting tools I got, back then in 99 or 2000 I don't remember exactly. Somewhere close. I was rather excited about new technologies, new materials for blades. And ceramics as a blade material was rather intensively promoted. So, I bought the hype and went for it. Even though Alvin Johnston did warn me against ceramic blades... By that time I've already had Boker Ceramic Delta folder, which I haven't used too much. So, I decided to test ceramic knife and peeler in the kitchen. Although I was not the main user of all that, occasionally I'd still use them, carefully :) Anyway, some people are still happy with their ceramic peelers to me the experiment was complete failure.
General
- Can't say much about the design, usual swivel peeler. Doesn't look neither too fancy nor too complicated. Comes with red or black handle. Major feature, and selling point obviously its ceramic blade. Officially it never needs sharpening. Actually that is true. You simply can't sharpen it, so once it's dull it's dull. Use it as is or throw away and buy a new one. Personally to me the knife or cutting tool that can't be sharpened is pretty much useless, unless it's a disposable blade, but I don't like disposable blades in general, and a disposable peeler for 12$ doesn't sound very good either.There were some talks about being able to sharpen ceramic with diamond sharpeners. Theoretically that can be done, because even though ceramic is very hard (around 90 HRC on Rockwell scale, compared to 58-59 HRC for good kitchen blades) diamond is still harder. I do have large assortment of various diamond sharpeners, so I've tried several times to sharpen ceramic blades. No success, it chips, and quite badly. As of the peeler I didnt' even try, it isn't exactly possible to sharpen that type of the peeler using conventional sharpening tools, so I just gave up.
In the end, looking back at things it was my own fault :(. I overestimated edge holding ability of ceramics. And with the demands I have for cutting instruments it was not realistic to expect the edge to last few years withouth sharpening.
Usage
- As described, ceramics does hold its edge longer than steel, and the proportion is many to one. Although a good steel properly maintained will reduce that gap from 5 to perhaps 2 to 1. All the above is true only for soft materials. On hard stuff ceramic simply breaks, or chips away. In extreme cases you can simply drop the ceramic peeler and say good buy to it. Anyway, this one lasted pretty sharp for few months. But eventually wear and use took their tall. I wouldn't call it sharp after 6 months. This is probably 5-6 times longer than any steel peeler, but after that it's done.Probably most of the folks can use that for years, but that doesn't mean much, the same folks never sharpen their kitchen knives either. If you're one of them, then go for ceramic, just don't break it. If you care about sharpness then forget this thing. May be in the future, but for now, good steel beats is by versatility and maintainability, and durability too on hard materials. Alternatively, you may not care about neither sharpness, nor ceramics, and then instead of buying 3$ peelers and throwing them away 5 times faster ceramics buy 12$ Kyoceras ;) You might still save.
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Last updated - 05/19/19