Maintaining a kitchen knife
Good knives need to be looked after. This means that you need to use, clean, sharpen and store them properly. If you take good care of your knives they will continue to amaze you time and time again.
Contents
Cutting
It sounds obvious, but you should always use the right knife for the right task. Chopping with a cleaver, boning with a boning knife and cutting meat with a carving knife.
Correct use
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Avoid sideways movements with the knife. After all, you could damage the edge. The knife is simply not built for this. So make sure you pay attention to the fact that you only move up and down with the knife.
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Look out for bones, frozen food and hard seeds. For it you should grab a cleaver or boning knife. Not only do such hard things make your knife blunt, they could even chip the blade. Such a waste of a great knife!
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Never put too much pressure on a knife. After all, a kitchen knife is so sharp to make sure it will smoothly cut through anything. When you have to put a lot of pressure on a knife chances are that the edge is blunt. Check the blade and, if necessary, grab another knife. After all, if you slip you could end up on your cutting board having to live with the consequences. Not only for the knife, also for your own safety.
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Always use a plastic, or even better, a wooden cutting board. Marble and glass are easy to clean, but not good for the blade because they are too hard. A good rule of thumb is: if the knife doesn’t scratch the board the board will be too hard for the edge.
Cleaning
We advise you to always wash your kitchen knives by hand. Even if the supplier states that the knife is dishwasher proof. A knife with a wooden handle will visibly get damaged and a riveted handle will eventually tear at the rivets. In addition, the handle can break because of the heat.
Aggressive detergents can cause irreparable damage to your knife. Detergent can affect hardened steel and plastics and can leave specs of rust on the blade and leave you with dull handles.
In addition, when you clean your knife in the dishwasher chances are that the knife will come into contact with hard objects such as cutlery that can damage the edge. And if you don’t immediately turn the dishwasher on any food left on the plates (herbs, sauces, juices) can damage the blade leaving you with stains. Add up all the above mentioned arguments and you will understand why we advise you to wash all your blades by hand.
Still prefer to wash your kitchen knives in the dishwasher? Make sure you place the knife in the dishwasher with the blade pointing up to make sure the water will immediately fall down. As a result you decrease your chances of rust. As soon as the dishwasher is done make sure you properly dry the knife.
Sharpening
It doesn’t matter how careful you are, there will always come a time when you need to sharpen your knife. When you use a blunt knife you will automatically put more pressure on it, making the risk of accidents bigger. As a result it is a good idea to keep your knives nice and sharp. After all, they will also be much better to work with. In terms of sharpening we recommend you don’t wait until the last minute. It is easier to keep a reasonably sharp knife sharp than to get a blunt knife razor-sharp. We have listed a lot of information on our website about sharpening your knives. After all, it is something you can easily do yourself. We will give you 5 good reasons to sharpen your knife yourself.
Storing
Never store individual kitchen knives in a kitchen drawer. After all, it could bump into other hard objects that could leave you with burrs on the edge. Not something you are looking for if you want to keep your knife sharp. In addition, it is probably not a good idea to blindly reach into a drawer that houses a sharp knife. We will tell you more about the importance of properly storing your kitchen knives in this article.Use a knife guard, or, if you have one a knife magnet or knife block.
