Getting to the point
Thanks to Palina Antonova from The Trish Nicol Agency for providing a 5 inch Ceramic Lime Santoku knife ($88 RRP) for product testing. I'm a novice when it comes to cooking but I welcome any opportunity of finding a super sharp knife to make things easier in the kitchen. I decided on three tests to see how it performed. Cutting a semi-ripe cherry tomato was the first test. If the knife was used in a slicing motion it performed well although when used in a very slow downward vertical motion without a slicing motion it had trouble cutting the skin of the tomato. I tried this with my current stainless steal knifes which failed as well although they weren't as sharp as this new knife. Second test was holding a piece of paper and slicing. It did a pretty good job of this and most sharp knives should do the same. The final test was cutting a carrot. It did a pretty good job although I noticed I kept producing a curved slice each time. I'm not quite sure if this might be the intention of the blade design but I think it shouldn't be. My preference would be a straight cut which happens with my other knives. Maybe it's not the right knife for the job.
In terms of the ergonomics and design it's quite a comfortable knife to hold in the hand. Feels quite light although my preference would be for a knife that has a bit more weight which I think would also help in cutting. The 5 inch knife is slightly larger than my paring knife but smaller than my utility knife so size wise it's probably a bit too small for maybe an all purpose knife. I think their Chef's Knife looks more ideal both in size and shape. I generally use the back edge of a knife to scrap cuttings off the chopping board but the curved design of the Santoku sits above the surface which isn't ideal to do this. I use a wall mounted magnetic holder for my knives for easy access and to save on bench space but you won't be able to do this with a ceramic knife. I'm suspecting the Damascus Chef's Knife would be a better choice for me from what I can see with its blade design, size, being metallic and having more weight.
SNAPSHOT REVIEW:
PROS: Comfortable grip, Nice packaging, Blade supposedly stays sharp for years without the need for stone grinding
CONS: Ceramic knife not compatible with magnetic holder, Curved back edge doesn't sit flat to a chopping board for scrapping, Seems to chop with a curved slice for some reason
MUST TRY: I need to test dicing an onion, thin slicing meat and chopping herbs
VERDICT: Initial testing hasn't been favourable although I'll keep using to see if sharpness is retained over time and test on other ingredients
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| Nice packaging |
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| Number 074 of 999 made in series |
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| Quite nice to hold although for most cutting I ended up positioning my index finger on the top of the handle to make room underneath to slicing |
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| 5 inches is a rather short blade and prefer a longer blade for general kitchen preparation |
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| Back edge of blade is curved so leaves a gap underneath which can make it less effective in scrapping cuttings off the board |
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| Being a ceramic blade it's not compatible with magnetic wall holders |
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| Performed well when thinly slicing tomato |
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| Didn't perform well with very slow downward vertical motion on tomato for some reason |
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| Performed well with paper slicing. This would be my main text over time to see how the blade retains its sharpness |
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| Carrot cutting OK except the blade seemed to what to cut with a curve |
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| Cutting with right hand created a curved edge favouring a direction towards the right |
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| Forged under 300 tons of pressure and 1400ºC apparently renders the blade almost as hard as diamond. “The blade remains sharp for years of use without need for sharpening” — sounds good to me! |
