Checked Central in CM tonight. They have only stainless steel and ceramic.

Nice to see you're down enjoying the delights of Chiang Mai. I have to admit after living there with my wife five years, the shopping was convenient and mostly good. Did you happen to see the brand of the ceramic knives?

The brand at Central is Kyocera.

Thanks mate. Kyocera was exactly the brand name I was after Now I'm wondering if I have to give them my first born child as down payment There is a chef knife artisan in Japan who's Damascus steel knives sell for a small fortune. For the people who may not know. Commercially available ceramic knives do have a metal content and this has been specifically placed into the ceramic compound so that knives can be detected at airport security scanners. Initially they couldn't before that addition.

I have done some more research and I find EVERYTHING now is listed as stainless steel. So it is high quality SS or lesser quality. The knifes I was looking for was high carbon steel which takes a bit of maintenance but always gave me great results. May no longer be sold. If anyone ever comes upon a sharping steel that looks adequate, let me know.

Scorpio, normally we just buy some half decent SS knives that generally will last us for years, but I do have a penchant for good quality knives for special occasions.