How To Take Care Of Your Expensive Kitchen Knives So They Last A Lifetime

1. Keep your knives sharp! It would be a shame to spend $150 on a quality, well-balanced chefs knife that is sharp, fits your hand and is a pleasure to use, then allow it to get so dull that you hesitate to use it, even for ordinary tasks. Worse yet, good knives that are dull frequently get retired to a junk drawer and replaced with new ones. The best policy for quality knives is to have them sharpened at frequent intervals so a minimum of metal is removed with each sharpening. It’s more an idea of maintaining a proper cutting edge by honing the knife lightly than that of grinding a new edge after it is hopelessly dull (ask the Strop Shop® about their Cutting Edge Maintenance Plan).

Regular maintenance is just good business. You get the benefits of a sharp knife every time you use it and you save big dollars by not having to replace it.

To invest in a full set of Wüsthof, or other fine knives, you might expect to pay $1,200, a major investment in cutlery. A full set might include a 2 ½” trimmer, 2 ¾” peeler, 3 ½” paring, 4 ½” utility, 5” tomato, 5” boning, 6” sandwich, 6” straight fork, 8” carving, 8” bread, 6” chef’s, 8” chef’s, 6” cleaver, and eight 4 ½” steak knives. Replacing abused knives is far more expensive than maintaining them by having them sharpened at regular intervals. Most restaurants have their knives sharpened every 30 to 90 days. The proper sharpening frequency for you will be determined by how much you use your knives, what on and whether you have a “heavy hand” or a light touch as you go about your work.

2. For safety sake, learn how to use a knife so that you don’t cut your fingers. Curl the fingers of your left hand so that the side of the knife blade rests against your knuckles as you’ve seen the professionals do in cooking programs on television. Watch the pros on the Food Channel if you want to really see how a knife should be used.

3. Never put your quality knives in a dishwasher! Over time, it will warp or even crack the handles, separating the handle from the tang or bolster where food-borne bacterium has room to hide. We don’t want to go there. Instead, wash them in soapy water, rinse and hand-dry them. This will go a long way toward ensuring you a lifetime of use of your knives.

4. Keep your knives in a knife drawer organizer or block to keep the blades separated. To throw them all into a single compartment where two sharp edges can collide may dull or nick the blades. Haphazardly stored knives may also present a potential hazard for unwary hands.

5. Use a wooden cutting board. Plastic cutting boards dull your knives faster than wooden ones. And in spite of what you may have heard about wooden boards not being sanitary, they are more sanitary than the plastic boards. After using any cutting board for raw meat of any kind, wash it with soapy water, rinse it, then spray on a mist of hydrogen peroxide followed immediately by a mist of vinegar. Never put a wooden cutting board in a dishwasher because it will soften the glue that holds the boards together and eventually cause them to warp and separate, an unrecoverable state of decline.

6. You’ve undoubtedly seen a television cooking show where a chef is absent-mindedly chopping onions or peppers and when they’re through chopping they use the sharp edge of the knife to scrape their vegetables into a pile. That’s one of the worst things you can do to a knife and the fastest way to dull or even damage the delicate cutting edge! Cut in a straight forward or straight back slicing motion, or a straight down chopping motion. If you must use a knife to scrape vegetables into a pile, use the spine or back of the knife blade, not the cutting edge. Better yet, use a scraper.

7. Ceramic sharpeners are used by many the world over. A course ceramic will remove large amounts of metal quickly. If ceramic sharpeners will sharpen a knife, they will also dull a knife. When you cut a steak on a ceramic plate (the same type of ceramic found in the sharpeners), you’re hastening the dulling of the blade, plus you’re actually cutting into the finish of the plate which will soon begin to show signs of wear. So that dulling isn’t instantaneous, it is far better to do your slicing on a wooden cutting board.

8. You should never use an electric knife-grinder on your quality knives because they remove far more material than is necessary, critically shortening the life of a knife. The sharpening angle is usually wrong and the edge is left rough, good for cutting manila rope but not good for kitchen duties. Knife-grinders also remove excessive amounts of metal that soon cause a concave edge. Look at it this way: A knife marketer sells you an expensive set of knives, then, because you know they will need sharpening you buy one of the electric grinders. The marketer knows you’ll be back soon to buy another new set of knives. Let the professional at the Strop Shop® sharpen your knives and maybe they’ll last you a lifetime.

9. Never use a knife blade as a screwdriver or pry bar. It will bend, or possibly even break the blade or tip.

10. Never heat a knife blade. It takes the temper out of the metal and softens it so that it cannot retain a sharp edge. It will have to be re-tempered if it is to hold an edge.

11. Never attempt to sharpen a knife by hand, using a whet stone. The angle at which a knife is sharpened is critical and you cannot maintain a proper, consistent angle.

12. Never attempt to sharpen a knife using a steel. A steel is designed to “touch-up” the knife edge temporarily but not to sharpen it. As a knife shows signs of dulling, to extend the use of it, use a 1500 grit ceramic very lightly and limit its use to a few strokes. When you’ve used a Ceramic and it had no effect, it’s time to have your knives professionally sharpened again. A good rule of thumb is, use a ceramic sparingly every few weeks, have your knives sharpened frequently and have them reground occasionally. The Strop Shop® can demonstrate how to use a ceramic for you the next time your knives are sharpened (a ceramic can be purchased from the Strop Shop®).

13. Call 952-237-0775 for all your sharpening needs, including everything in the home such as kitchen cutlery, scissors, mandoline blades, potato peelers, and everything in the work shop, including plane irons, wood chisels, hand saws and hunting knives, hatchets, and even collector’s knives. All yard and garden tools including the lawn mower blade (off the mower), trimmers, hedge clippers, hatchets, limb loppers, hoes, spades, saw chains and even animal clippers. Sharpening with a noticeable difference for home and business.