Good advice for all those new kitchen knives

[hso]

Some good advice on how to keep your edge from chipping, rolling, dulling longer.

https://artisanrevere.com/blogs/all/stop-chipping-and-dulling-your-knifes-edge-heres-how

Don't scrape with your knife's edge
Scraping and scooping: We often see professionals and home cooks with a bit of training follow this pattern: cut, scrape the food into their waiting support hand with the knife’s edge, then scoop it, and place it in a bowl or the skillet. If you must scrape with your knife, we recommend never using the cutting edge because it will rapidly dull your blade. Knives are made to withstand up and down force, not lateral force. In other words, it’s made to chop and dice, not to scrape and scoop. Think about how little steel there is at the edge! So, instead of using your knife’s edge, flip the knife and scrape with the spine. Alternatively, you can spend about $10 and purchase a steel or plastic bench scraper to move your cut up foods to their next location.

Use the right tool for the job.
No bones, frozen or super dense foods: As we discussed in a prior post, here, you should never use your primary kitchen knives to cut through bone or frozen foods. Instead, use a heavy duty butcher knife or cleaver if you absolutely must cut bone. Otherwise you risk, and very nearly guarantee, large chips in your knife edge. Dense foods, like squash and coconut should not be broken down by a thin-edged blade. For frozen foods, please defrost! This is to protect your hands from deep gashes and also to ensure you don’t chip or bend your knife. If you don’t defrost, you’re likely to bend or snap your blade.

Clean it...properly
Don't leave your knife in the sink or on the cutting board: One of the most common errors home cooks make, is leaving their high-end knives out on the cutting board or marinating in the sink for hours after cooking with them. Hell, line cooks get kicked out of the kitchen for doing it because it’s also dangerous—another cook might reach into the sink and cut themselves.

Here’s why it’s also bad for your knives: Leaving your knife dirty, means that a part of the beautiful meal you just finished prepping is still sitting on that blade. Anything acidic or salty or moist is actively trying to eat away at your blade steel and handle. Our founder, David Olkovetsky always says, “Moisture is the enemy of steel. So are acid and salt.” Acids and salts attack the free chromium in your knives, and it’s chromium that makes a “stainless steel” knife, stain-less. Excess, or free chromium (Cr) makes a passive film that protects your blade from rust and patina, so if you want to give the Cr a bit of a boost, wash your knives off right after use. We know this might appear to be obvious at first, but it’s still worth talking about how to properly wash and dry your knives, in detail.


Washing:

1. Avoid the dishwasher like the plague: Never ever place a quality knife in the dishwasher unless you are actively trying to ruin it. It is a hurricane of near-boiling water and highly abrasive detergent. It will chip, dull, and corrode your knives, including a high probability of causing pitting corrosion—a particularly nasty, localized form of corrosion. Finally, the high temperatures and wet conditions will rapidly eat away the epoxy that holds your handle together, and you'll soon have a totally useless knife handle.
2. Hold the knife by the handle: Ideally, in your dominant hand.
3. Hot Water: Run warm or hot water, and not just because it feels nice—it actually serves a purpose—which we’ll get to in a minute.
4. Use only non-scratch sponges: These can be found next to heavy duty sponges at the grocery store. Heavy duty sponges can actually dull your knife’s edge, because aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) on the scouring side is high Rockwell and used in abrasives.
5. Dish soap: Applying any of the name brand dish soaps to the sponge.
6. Avoid slicing the sponge: Never cut into the sponge with a sharp knife. Sharp knives will slice right through it.
7. Scrub the knife: Go ahead and scrub down the entirety of the blade with the sponge. Make sure to get any stuck-on food.
8. Wash off the soap: Now wash all the soap off with warm water. It’s always best when washing to use your helping hand to ensure you got all the soap off. We’re able to feel residual soap much more easily than we can see it.

Drying:
Now that you’re done washing, there’s one step left—drying.

We mentioned earlier that it’s good to wash with warm or hot water, and the reason is that it makes drying your knives, and all of your dishes easier. Warm and hot water evaporate more readily off the blade, so it will be easier to dry your knife fully. Please make sure your knife is bone-dry before storing it.

1. Dry with a towel: Take a clean dish towel or paper towel, and dry off your knife, completely.
2. Use your fingers to feel for moisture: Feel the blade and handle with your fingers when you’re finished with the towel. You do this to confirm that the knife is totally dry.
3. Store safely: Place the knife somewhere safe, like a sheath or a magnetic rack for storage. Blocks are bad because the edge is resting on the wood.

 

[JohnKSa]

Store safely: Place the knife somewhere safe, like a sheath or a magnetic rack for storage. Blocks are bad because the edge is resting on the wood.

Next to avoiding the dishwasher, this is probably the most important thing for maintaining an edge. A bunch of knives rattling around in a drawer can't really stay sharp unless they have blade covers.

You can find some blocks that store the knives on their sides. Henkels & Victorinox sell some knife blocks made that way.

 

[armoredman]

I JUST today bought my first good knife, a Henkle 8" Chef's knife to replace the cheap Chinesium one that broke the very first time I tried to use it. I already do most of what he says, but I was putting them in the dhishwasher once in a while. Won't do that with the good ones! My research partner just ordered, yesterday, two magnetic knife racks, not to save the blades, but clear up counter space. Nice to know that is better anyway.

 

[DeepSouth]

My wife recently got me a Dalstrong Pitmaster to use for grilling, it’s by far the most expensive kitchen knife we’ve ever owned. I have to say I really like it and understand now why people spend so much on kitchen knives.

Thank You for posting this, most of that I would have done anyway, with the exception of occasionally using the dish washer and maybe a couple other minor things I hadn’t considered.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I use the spine of the knife to scrape my chopped/cut foods off the board or "scoop" the food using the edged side. Never scrape the edged side along the board.

 

[rabid wombat]

If you cannot sharpen a knife yourself, find someone good who can….

Taking care like above is half the battle….it was fun when my sister in law came over and used a sharp knife for the first time…the look on her face was priceless

 

[rust collector]

Good advice, but sponges take awhile to dry and may harbor unwanted microbes. My cleaning implement of choice is a short handled stiff scrub brush, which excels at getting into that blade/handle recess and into lanyard holes, fullers and irregular surfaces of all descriptions. Wet ASAP after use, scrub in soapy water moving brush from spine to edge, then hot water rinse and dry with clean dish towel. I will usually steel lightly before stowing.

I store flat in drawers with edges protected, but if you have a canted knife block simply place them in spine down.

 

[The Glockodile]

Try to learn how to enjoy sharpening your knives.

It’s an activity more gratifying than handloading, with a zen all unto its own.

 

[hso]

unwanted microbes

Soak, place fully wet in microwave safe bowl with a lid, microwave to boiling point. No microbes. I was frustrated by dish towles and sponges getting "stinky" quickly and then saw that "trick".

I use your same technique of a brush and soapy water brushing from spine to edge/tip followed by a thorough rinse and towel dry. Keeps my parts with blood in them away from the edge.

 

[C0untZer0]

I've been scraping cut-up meat & vegetables from the cutting board to the pot for decades,

My God, what have I done...

 

[rust collector]

I've been scraping cut-up meat & vegetables from the cutting board to the pot for decades,

My God, what have I done...

Just push with spine, scoop with cutting edge forward, or use a bench knife/scraper that does a better job and is handy for clearing countertops, scraping cast iron pans, smashing garlic cloves and chopping nuts!

 

[hso]

These are handy

 

[The Glockodile]

You guys are overthinking things...

The Chinese cooks use cleavers almost exclusively.

 

[C0untZer0]

I see the employees at Jersey Mike's use a scraper to clean the counter, but they knifes to cut the sandwiches.

 

[Emmanuel of Arms]

Clean you say?

 

[Emmanuel of Arms]

I’m the knife guy in my fam. The quick 5 I tell initiates...

CUTTING SURFACE: Don’t let your knife touch anything but plastic, wood or food. Not your dinner plate, serving platter, bottom of the sink. One drag across a ceramic plate and your blade is instantly dull.

SHARPENING SCHEDULE: Sharpening your very mediocre knives once a year is crazy. If you’re not willing to maintain your knives, you need to have multiples so you can rotate them between yearly sharpenings.

MAINTENANCE: If you really care, learn to use a ceramic hone, leather strop, whetstone, etc...

THERE’S NO MAGIC BULLET: If you don’t care enough to maintain your knives, don’t buy anything fancier than a victorinox.

YOU CAN’T BUY SHARPNESS: Beyond said victorinox, no amount of money will extend the time between sharpenings without a maintenance regimen. Expensive japanese steels will hold an incredibly fine edge for an eternity if you strop them daily and drag against a stone when the edge starts to degrade. The same steels will turn into a chippy mess without care.

Previous advice for hand washing and not cutting bones/ice stands. Unless it’s carbon steel, then avoid excessive washing and let it blacken and keep the edge shiny. See my dirty knife above.

Oh yea...
6) SHARP KNIVES ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE: The very worst example I have is that my neighbors asked for advice on a new $300 wusthof set. I said I’d sharpen their old junkers for free on a belt sander. He brought them back after a week and said they were too sharp, exclaiming that wife cut herself twice. I found out later that their son had taken them to the shop for a “dulling”.

My parents are the same tbh. They want their knives 70% sharp and want it to stay constant with no fluctuation between sharpenings.

 

[rust collector]

Your beech handled beef skinner reminds me of the old Russell Green River knives once so common. Good, honest blades that were mostly relegated to the thrift stores or tossed when the shiny stainless (and often serrated) Ekco and Ginsu knives took over. "Never need sharpening. Just rub on bottom of a plate" and toss in the dishwasher. Sometimes what passes for progress, isn't.

 

[Emmanuel of Arms]

Tis indeed a Russell. If I see a black knife at the thrifty store for under $5, I grab it. That includes dexters and ole hickories.

 

[Spats McGee]

Back when I was about 10, hospitals still re-used scalpels. My dad was a doctor and took our knives to the guy that sharpened the local hospital's scalpels between uses to have them honed. We went through a lot of Band-Aids over the next week or so.

 

[Bazoo]

Preciate the reminders. I never would have thought about scraping, but I see how it could be bad for the edge.

We use several okay knives, and several cheaper ones that won't hold an edge from the stone to the cutting board. Those we use for cutting against a plate, like to cut a sammich.

I have a friend that has nothing but dull knives. I can't see how they cook. I sharpened her victorinox chef knife and she was delighted and amazed. Only took 5 minutes.

For food prep I mostly use an ecko eterna steak knife that is straight edged and blunt pointed. It doesn't hold an edge forever, but takes a decent toothy edge. The geometry though allows it to cut very well.

For meat, I generally use my hunting knives. We keep a schrade 143ot green handle in the knife block.

We don't have a dishwasher. I generally do the washing. I finally got my wife trained to not throw a knife in the sink with the dishes. Most of the time.

 

[Speedo66]

6) SHARP KNIVES ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE: The very worst example I have is that my neighbors asked for advice on a new $300 wusthof set. I said I’d sharpen their old junkers for free on a belt sander. He brought them back after a week and said they were too sharp, exclaiming that wife cut herself twice. I found out later that their son had taken them to the shop for a “dulling”.

I got a sharpener for a present last month, started sharpening kitchen knives.

Got orders from my wife not to sharpen certain knives, the 6" Wusthof chef's knife was "sharp enough", and "I peel against my thumb, don't sharpen the paring knives".

Fortunately, I have some knives only I use.

 

[.38 Special]

One of the first fights I ever had with my wife was when she kept putting my "good" chef's knife into the dishwasher.

 

[hso]

^
I just lock my Murray Carters up so she can't get her hands on them. I take them out, I use them, I wash & dry them, and then I lock them back up.

 

[rust collector]

Yes, there are a few cooking knives here that are not kept in the kitchen. Kitchen knives get a utility edge that is useful but durable, while the Asians come out only for special events.