I've been summoned
Personally, I'm not sold on the utility of ceramic knives. Don't get me wrong, they're sharp, possibly moreso than steel, but they're also incredibly brittle. The slightest bit of sideloading can chip the edge, and if you drop it it's gone. Plus, no matter what the manufacturer claims, the edge WILL go dull. It might take a lot longer, but when it happens sharpening that edge is an absolute bear. Personally, I wouldn't bother, steel is the way to go as far as I'm concerned
For going through your tough rope, you've got 2 options, you can either get a knife made with a steel that's easy to sharpen as needed but might not hold the edge as long, or you can go with something incredibly tough and will hold an edge longer, but is much more of a PITA to sharpen. Personally, I prefer the former, I like being able to touch up an edge without much fuss. To that end, I'd recommend something like 1095 steel or AEB-l steel. The former is a plain carbon steel. Pretty much the archetype for knife making steels. Easy to sharpen, takes a wicked edge, good edge retention and all around toughness, it's just good stuff. The latter is a stainless steel that actually preforms nearly identical to 1095, it's one of my favorite steels in a knife. It was originally developed to make scalpel blades and other surgical implements, so that should give you an idea of it's performance. If you wanted super-tough instead, D2 or s30v are both good options, but be prepared to pay for it,both in terms of cost and sharpening time. Both of those steels are incredibly abrasion resistant
And as Shoot Summ mentioned, I do custom work, and if you were interested I could make a complete knife, or just a ground and heat treated blade blank you could add your own scales to. If you'd rather have something off the shelf though, check out USA knife maker, they're one of my preferred suppliers. Bit more limited in the types of blade blanks you can get, as well as the steel varieties, but it's worth looking at. If you'd rather go custom though, feel free to shoot me a PM, my prices are reasonable