They usually say "these are my favorite knives, please get them back to me as soon as possible." I get some lovely customer testimonials from people who are just so happy because the knife is so sharp. You can get paper thin slices of tomato- you can see right through the tomatoes.
It's the hard material that provides the edge. Traditional steel knives will over time get worn down. That's why the knife tends to slide a little bit and be more slippery on material like tomato. It's a gradual process people don't realize. They tell me that is why an accident happened in the kitchen, because of the dull knife. You want to keep your knife as sharp as possible. You will actually have fewer accidents in the kitchen that way.
When a traditional steel knife is made, there are actually little tiny micro pieces on the edge of the cutting edge of the blade. These get worn down when you are honing your knives; which is something that people should do with their steel knives at home. Use a sharpening rod that you can get at the store. Kyocera actually sells a ceramic sharpening rod for use on steel knives, not ceramic knives. You have to hone your knives. When you are using that, it actually helps true up the edge a little bit, but really you are going to need to send it in for sharpening periodically (every six months). Professionally sharpening them is much better and several studies have been done on hone sharpening machines and things like that. They really don't do as good of a job; not nearly as good of a job as the professional sharpening. There is a precise angle at which you need to hone and sharpen knives. Also, if you are working with something a lot and you use it on a daily basis, it is going to need to get sharpened at some point. So getting into the habit of doing honing and sharpening is a great way to take care of something that you love and use a lot.
