03 Feb
Giveaway: Shenzhen Knives
The best gift we received when we got married came from my father-in-law, a Japanese knife. He has a knife collection hanging in his office (he knows his stuff), and he did a fantastic job picking out a Japanese chef’s knife that I plan to use for forever. Sometimes though, that big knife is a bit hard to maneuver. Or it’s dirty and I don’t want to wash it. Now, I have a pretty new ceramic knife from Shenzhen in my collection that has become part of my daily routine.
The blade on this knife is white, almost translucent on the edges, because it’s made of zirconia. Fun fact: zirconia is the second hardest material we know of next to diamonds, and it happens to be the stone I considered having my engagement ring fashioned out of (then we found an antique one that I loved so I didn’t go with the zirconia). My favorite part about the zirconia is that it goes much longer without needing to be sharpened. I’m horrible about sharpening my chef’s knife, to the point that it can become a little bit dangerous.
I wanted this knife for two very specific things. First, for maneuvers like slicing the tops off of bell peppers where the chef’s knife was big and awkward to maneuver. Second for slicing tomatoes, because my chef’s knife won’t do the trick and my other knives are part of a $40 block from Wal-mart. The Shenzhen does eactly what I was hoping. The marketing material says this knife is for “precision cutting tasks” and that is just what I needed.
You need to know, that you have to be careful with this blade. You can’t smash garlic with it (the blade is sharp but brittle), cut frozen items, or other heavy duty tasks. A good chef’s knife will still be essential. I also don’t really like the plastic handle, but I understand it keeps costs down and I appreciate that. The last drawback is that you have to go out of your way to figure out how to sharpen it eventually, which has to be done using a diamond wheel.
Overally I’m very happy with the knife, and have found a reason to use it almost everyday since I received it. Would you like to win one and try it out for yourself?
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
I think there is a typo on the @link in the twitter entry link.
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Jenna Reply:
February 3rd, 2012 at 9:06 am
There was! Thanks for helping me catch that, I’ve fixed it now.
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I believe I’ve caught that you’re moving to San Francisco (or nearby) soon - if so, you’re in luck. The west coast sharpening place for ceramic knives is in San Mateo, meaning that taking them anywhere else gets them shipped there (at least for the Kyocera ones).
I also learned the hard (and expensive) way not to use these on blocks of cheese.
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2Neither link worked for me- FB page couldn’t be located and neither could the Twitter id.
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Jenna Reply:
February 3rd, 2012 at 9:10 am
I fixed it now. Thanks for the heads-up!
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Oh, man! We’ve got a Kyocera knife and it’s WONDERFUL! Great giveaway, Jenna!
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4oh man, you don’t know how badly I need a new knife! We are still using the set we got from when we got married five years ago and even then they were cheap knives.
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5I registered for a Shun knife which is AMAZING, although we mostly keep it under lock and key for really important cooking things because I have a really good collection of German knives, all gifted by my dad over the years - he’s a knife connoisseur and whenever he is teaching in Germany, he hits the “scratch and dent” bins in the knife stores and brings home knives with cosmetic defects but perfect blades. My college roommates say the thing they miss the most about living with me is my awesome knife block.
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6I would love to try one! Thanks
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7I’d love to try it out!
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8My husband would love this LOL I am the one who likes cooking more but he is the one on the search for the perfect knives :p
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9Also if you cut apples with it they won’t turn brown because it won’t oxidize.
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10Why yes. I would like to receive one and try it out for myself.
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11Did you ever post the winner for this?
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