Smith’s Lawaia 4-Inch Ceramic Knife

I recently received a Smith’s Consumer Products Lawaia 4-Inch Ceramic Knife to test. Ok, it is actually advertised as a great knife to cut bait while fishing. Due to the blade being constructed out of ceramic and the handle rubber, it is a great bait knife for using in the ocean in saltwater conditions. But I’m going to desecrate it and use it for testing for this article as a great paring knife for use in the kitchen. I like to cook, so I’m always hunting for good cooking knives, and I just found one-the Smith’s Lawaia 4-Inch Ceramic Knife.

If you cook to any degree, then you know that a paring knife is an important part of your arsenal. I make a lot of salsa, especially in late summer when the tomatoes are getting ripe by the bucketsful. In fact, that is when I make the bulk of my salsa. I freeze a ton of it, so it lasts me throughout the year.

If you’ve ever made salsa, then you know how many tomatoes and onions you must slice up. I don’t want to say that slicing tomatoes are the ultimate test to determine the sharpness of a knife but…. It might be. If your knife is dull, it will smush the tomato when you’re slicing it instead of deftly slicing through it. So, you need a super sharp knife to slice tomatoes.

Then, of course, for slicing other vegetables, I use a paring knife. For slicing bigger fruit like cantaloupe or watermelons, I use a bigger knife-like Smith’s 8-inch boning/fillet knife. On these larger items, you can make smoother cuts with an 8-inch blade.

Also, whenever I smoke the flanks and tri-tips off of a wild hog, deer, or elk, I like to slice them paper-thin when serving them as appetizers. Unless they have been aged for 45 days, they are tough, and it’d be like chewing rubber if you sliced them thick like a steak. They have good flavor but are super tough, but if you slice them thin, they make awesome appetizers. I use a razor-sharp paring knife to perform this task.

But for slicing bigger cuts, like when I smoke hog or deer shoulders, I use the Smith’s 8-inch boning/fillet knife. The same applies to slicing or chopping smoked briskets for making chopped or sliced BBQ brisket sandwiches.

So, for slicing small items as described above, I like to use a 4-6 inch paring knife. For slicing larger meat cuts such as smoked shoulders, briskets, or backstrap them, I like to use an 8-inch Smith’s boning/breaking knife. You can get smoother cuts using the 8-inch blade. Try it, and you’ll see what I mean. Not that you can’t do it with a smaller blade, it just won’t be as smooth. And then vice versa on smaller items. Sure, you can slice tomatoes, onions, flanks, and tri-tips with an 8-inch blade; it’s just less awkward if you use a paring knife.

And less Smith’s hangs me as a heretic let’s briefly touch on what the Smith’s Lawaia 4-inch Ceramic Knife was actually designed for! If you do much salmon fishing in Alaska, then you know how they slice the heads off of herring and hook them up. The Smith’s Lawaia 4-inch Ceramic Knife would work great for this.

The Lawaia will also work great if you’re slicing a piece of skin off of a fish to use to fish for perch on down to cutting chicken livers for catfishing or whatever kind of fishing that you’re doing. If you are using the Lawaia for cutting bait, make sure that you have a cutting board in the boat to cut on.

The MSRP on the Smith Consumer products Lawaia 4-inch Ceramic Knife is $11.99. and as is usual, we will close with the company specs

SPECS
Smith’s 4″ Lawaia Ceramic Baitbreaker knife has a non-slip TPE soft grip ergonomic handle and a breathable protective sheath. Features razor-sharp ceramic blade

Features & Benefits 4″ Razor-sharp ceramic blade Perfect for saltwater fishing Textured handle Lanyard hole Breathable protective sheath 24 pc display bucket

• Blade – 5.3″ White Serrated Ceramic
• The ceramic knife will never rust or corrode
• Handle – Non-slip TPE textured
• Protective sheath
• Great for cutting bait or in the kitchen
• Lanyard Hole

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About Tom Claycomb

Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoors writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net, and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”