Ceramic blades are almost impossible to sharpen (they say that even a factory sharpening never reaches the original sharpness.
Ceramic knife blades are prone to chipping, but maybe a well-cared-for pruner would never touch grit.
At least they don't rust!
Time for some truth in advertising: 95% of my knives are stainless steel. I rescue used knives from Goodwill, usually for 69 cents each. I clean 'em up and re-sharpen them. Most are just crummy old "soft stainless", but a few are "half-decent stainless".
I would give them away or sell them, but for now I just accumulate them and clean them up.
Someone at my local Goodwill figured out to grab any good carbon steel blades for himself before putting them on the shelf. For a year or so, I could occasionally find a good old knife there, if it was dirty, beat up and rusty, priced from 69 cents to a few bucks. Then someone learned to "high-grade" the used carbon steel knives flowing past his desk. Now none show up (but there might be some other scrounger who's much more dedicated than I am, and he just finds them first).
A few years after the carbon steel ones disappeared, , he learned that very GOOD stainless knives hold their value, and the price went from " 69 cents or a few bucks" right up to $6-9 for anything half-decent. So I've stopped accumulating.
