Up until a few weeks ago, I had never even heard of ceramic cutlery - but oh, I'm so glad I did! ViCera crafts some of the most amazing knives around, and the blades are made entirely of ceramic. I know that may sound a little unusual, but once you see the statistics, I think you'll be swayed. Take a look at how ceramic compares to traditional steel cutlery.
Ceramic vs. Steel
Why Ceramic?
In the spirit of full disclosure, there
are a few drawbacks to ceramic that must be noted. Ceramic is more delicate than steel. It should not be used to cut very hard materials, such as bone, frozen food, thickskinned items (e.g. pumpkins), nonfood items (e.g. wood, metal), etc. The blade should not be exposed to flame, and the edge should not be used to crush food (e.g. garlic). Ceramic is not able to withstand shock and may break if dropped from a height. However, for my purposes, I have found these disadvantages to all be very minor, and they have not adversely affected my knife usage.
My whole experience with ViCera has been fabulous. I was given the opportunity to review their chef's knife, and from the moment my package arrived, I have had no complaints. Even the packaging was impressive! My knife came in a large box packed full with Styrofoam peanuts and marked fragile - this shows me that ViCera cares enough about their customers to take the extra initiative to ensure that everything arrives safely, which I truly appreciate in a company.
Of course, things only got better once I opened the box! The knife is beautiful. It's bright white and somewhat translucent when held up to the light. From far away, it looks to me almost like an extremely shiny, clean metal knife - and up close it's a flawless white.
The knife feels perfect in my hand. The handle is very comfortable to hold and I was surprised at how lightweight it is compared to my metal knives. This made it very easy to wield. It is so much easier to use than any other knife I've ever tried out! I love that the blade is slightly curved, because it allows me to chop by rocking the knife back and forth, which is especially terrific when there's a lot for me to cut. I feel completely comfortable chopping with it, and I've found that I'm able to cut food into smaller pieces and with much more precision than I am able to with my other knives.
Just look at these teeny tiny pieces of pickle - I wanted to see how finely I could chop them. It's a little tough to tell from the photo, but some of these pieces are literally as small as large grains of sand. Plus, I'm confident that the only thing that kept me from dicing them into even smaller bits is my own coordination, not the knife. I have no doubt that the knife could cut them into even smaller pieces, if wielded skillfully!
The blade truly is incredibly sharp, which makes easy work of slicing, dicing, chopping, and mincing! It feels like I'm slicing through butter, even when I'm cutting something like a thick, tough piece of steak. Not only can I chop faster, easier, and more effectively, but the sharpness of the blade prevents me from needing to apply much pressure and squishing my food - this results in far fewer juices escaping and less mess for me to clean up!
Take a peek at this experiment - the pile on the left was chopped with my normal metal knife and the pile on the right with my new ViCera ceramic knife. As you can see, many of the pieces cut with my normal knife turned out mushy from all the extra pressure needed to cut with the knife, and so the pile on the left has a small puddle surrounding it:
I also tried cutting a loaf of French bread with my ViCera knife. Since it isn't serrated like a normal bread knife, I didn't expect it to work very well...but as it turns out, it sliced through the bread far more easily than even my actual bread knife! It didn't crush the bread, create a mountain of crumbs, or rip the bread haphazardly. Since I was able to cut through it without using much pressure at all, I was left with beautiful, clean-cut, presentable slices - which is fortunate, because I was having company over that night! I was pleased to be able to serve nice-looking, uniform slices of bread with the meal.
Overall, I have been very pleased with my ceramic knife. It's beautiful, lightweight, extremely sharp, and very easy to use. I would highly recommend a ViCera ceramic knife to anyone who wants to experience chopping heaven!
Buy It!
You can purchase the ceramic chef's knife from ViCeraCutlery.com for $80.
ViCera also offers a Santoku knife ($70), a utility knife ($60), and a paring knife ($40).
Win It!
ViCera has generously offered to send one lucky US winner the winner's choice of ANY ViCera ceramic knife (chef's, Santoku, utility, or paring)! That's up to an
$80 value - wow! Thanks, ViCera!
Please be sure to leave your email address in at least one entry; I will do my best to find your email address if you're the winner, but if I have no way to contact you, you cannot win! For complete giveaway rules, please see the "Giveaways" section under the "The Fine Print" page. Winning entries WILL be checked to ensure qualification, so please be honest! :)
Mandatory Entry (Must be completed before any other entries will qualify!)
- Publicly follow Twee Poppets with Google Friend Connect. (Click the "Follow" button under the "Followers" section at the top of the main page.)
Bonus Entries (Please leave a separate comment for each entry! If it's worth 3 entries, please leave 3 separate comments!)
- 3 Extra Entries (Leave 3 Comments): Subscribe to Twee Poppets via email (must be activated to count). (Enter your email address under the "Subscribe Via Email!" section on the left hand side of the main page and click the "Subscribe" button.)
- 1 Extra Entry: Visit http://www.viceracutlery.com/ and tell me which knife you think you might choose if you are the winner!
- 1+ Extra Entry: Enter another one of my current giveaways. You may have one extra entry PER contest entered (please leave a separate comment for each). This applies only to current giveaways. Giveaways that have already ended (before 8/30) do NOT count.
- 1 Extra Entry: Follow @TweePoppets on Twitter. (Include your Twitter ID with your entry.)
- 1+ Extra Entry: Tweet about this giveaway (may be done once daily for one entry per tweet). You may use this tweet: Win your choice of ANY ViCera ceramic knife (ARV up to $80)! Enter to win @TweePoppets. http://tinyurl.com/WinVicera (9/13) #giveaway
- 2 Extra Entries (Leave 2 Comments): Become a fan of ("like") Twee Poppets on Facebook. (Click this link or the button under the "Follow on Facebook!" section on the left hand side of the main page.)
- NEW!!! 2 Extra Entries (Leave 2 Comments): Become a fan of ("like") ViCera on Facebook. Leave a comment on their wall letting them know that Twee Poppets sent you! (You MUST comment on their wall, or this entry will not count!)
- 2 Extra Entries (Leave 2 Comments): Grab my button and add it to your blog or website. Let me know where I can find it! (Copy and paste the code that is in the "Grab My Button!" section on the left hand side of the main page.)
- 5 Extra Entries (Leave 5 Comments): Blog about Twee Poppets and this giveaway. Please be sure to mention this giveaway and link back to Twee Poppets (http://tweepoppets.blogspot.com). Your blog must have at least 10 followers on Google Friend Connect to be eligible. Blog entries must be at least 50 words long to count; must be a dedicated post (not just part of another post).
- 10 Extra Entries (Leave 10 Comments): Make a purchase from Vicera.com. If given the opportunity during checkout (notes to seller, etc.), be sure to say that Twee Poppets sent you! And please note that if you win, I WILL ask for proof of purchase (confirmation email, etc.).
Contest will end at 11:59pm PST on September 13, 2010. Winner will be chosen via random number generator. Winner will be contacted by me (tweepopacap@gmail.com) and will have 48 hours to respond before he or she forfeits the prize and a new winner is chosen. Open to mailing addresses in the US only.
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