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All masters of their trade like to use familiar tools and many tradesmen become intensely possessive of the tools of their trade. Professional chefs are no different and they often have a set of kitchen knives that only they are allowed to use. Most of us are happy to buy a few kitchen knives in a store and not think twice about how long they will last before they blunt and need sharpening. Poor quality steel products will blunt frequently and although the very finest steel knives cost more they are like most material things in life worth the extra in the long run. There is another material which many of us are unaware of but is well known to chefs and that is ceramic knives. Normally when we think of ceramic we think of porcelain pots and plates but ceramic knives are the popular choice for most professional chefs. The big advantage is that they are extremely hard and sharp and will need very little in the way of additional sharpening. Unlike a ceramic plate there is a special way of creating these knives and it involves great pressure and heat on the powdered raw material of zirconium dioxide. This natural material is sometimes more conveniently referred to as zirconia and added to it are one or two other elements such as magnesium and calcium. The latter two elements are there to help bind the intensely heated blade during the firing process. An interesting comparison about the hardness of this kind of knife is the appearance of steel and zirconia on the mineral hardness chart created by a German mineralogist in the nineteenth century. He placed diamond as the hardest element on earth at a nominal number of ten and all other elements known to man comes below that number. Steel is around number five on the scale and zirconia is eight and a half. There is one small problem with these types of chefs knives and that is you should avoid dropping them or cutting through joints with bone. They are very brittle and prone to break although current research which involves the fusion of other elements during firing are on-going and the brittleness problem may soon be solved. Another disadvantage is that these knives cannot be seen with conventional security scanners and manufacturers have been persuaded to insert some metal pieces during the making of these knives purely to get around that problem. Another great advantage is that they do not conduct any heat and can be left on electric hot plates without any side effects. Chefs knives made of steel or zirconia should be kept extremely sharp at all times. Even your local butcher will tell you that accidents rarely happen with the right sharp knife for the job whether a slicing or paring knife but blunt knives slip and that is when problems may occur. Most of us are happy enough with our stainless steel collection of knives in the kitchen although we are also ignorant of the fact that there are about twelve different types of knife all designed for different purposes so check what’s in your kitchen drawer now. For all your knives including chefs knives just visit http://www.smithsofloughton.com/
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