Buying Kyocera Revolution Series 7-Inch Professional Chef's Knife, Black Blade

Firstly, let me admit I do not own this knife. I own a number of highquality Japanese steel kithcen knives, which I sharpen my self at home for our domestic kitchen use.
My experience of the Kyocera Revolution was at a promotional demonstration in a knife shop, where we (customers) were able to use the knife on a variety of vegetables and fruit.

I tried the knife out on all of the veges. Gave it a bit of a typical kitchen workout in fact.

The result was that, although the ceramic knife did cut all the veges satisfactorily, it still did not feel as sharp as my own steel knives at home. The ceramic knife actually felt like it was in need of sharpening by comparison.
Later, I did a direct comparison at a friend's place. He had just bought a Kyocera Revolution knife and asked me around for an in home demo and comparison to my japanese steel knives (I took 2 knives - Hiromoto AS and Global brands).
Same result - the ceramic cut well, but was just not as sharp and did not cut as well as the steel knives.

Based upon my experience I did not and would not buy this ceramic knife.

Quite simply this ceramic knife is not as sharp as my Japanese Kitchen knives at home.

It seems that ceramic is just not a suitable material for making really sharp kitchen knives. From looking at the knife, it did not have the very thin edge of Japanese steel knives. Also, I suspect that the manufacturers have not yet found a way to grind or hone a really fine cutting edge.

By contrast, a good Japanese knife made of for example VG10 steel, or Hitachi AS carbon steel, can be sharpened to an edge sharpness of 0.5 micron. That is very very sharp - sharper than a razor blade, and ordinary people (not experts) can sharpen JAPANESE steel knives to this level at home.

Also, the ceramic knife is brittle and chips are inevitable even if you baby the knife. And it will get blunt, and then you need to send it away to get sharpened.

I suspect that the popularity of ceramic knives is testimony to the fact that many households and kitchens in NZ, USA, Australia and Europe, have simply never experienced the incredible sharpness of a decent Japanese steel kitchen knife, and have become tolerant of sub standard kitchen knives with poorly sharpened edges. Mostly these knives would be of Eurpean origin, and are softer steel than Japanese knives.

PS I threw out my Wusthorf and Sabatier knives years ago, as soon as I experienced real sharpness with my first Global knife.Get more detail about Kyocera Revolution Series 7-Inch Professional Chef's Knife, Black Blade.