KNIVES - CARE & MAINTENANCE

A sharp knife is a dangerous implement, but a dull knife is even more dangerous. How can this be? The answer is simple; you have to work harder when using a dull knife as opposed to letting a sharp knife do the work for you. More people hurt themselves with a dull knife than with a sharp one. So what’s the secret to avoid getting hurt with a dull knife? Again, simply keep your knives sharp. The fact of the matter is that all straight edge knives, when sharp, have microscopic saw teeth. I’m not talking about serrated knives, but about knives that look straight and when looked at with a strong magnifying glass or a microscope, you can see thousands of tiny saw teeth. It is these teeth, when they are present and straight on a knife that makes the knife sharp. When a knife is made at the factory, the final steps in making the knife are to give it a sharp edge. This is done by grinding the edge until these thousands of tiny saw teeth appear. Then the saw teeth are sharpened or beveled to a point. Then lastly, these teeth are honed or straightened. Now you have a sharp knife.
But knives don’t stay sharp forever. In fact, every time you use a knife, it dulls a little. This is because every time you use a knife, you either bend the teeth a little or actually break off some of the teeth. Once the teeth are bent too much or too many are broken off (or both), you have a dull knife. If you don’t take care of your knives, they will dull quickly with use. But there are some things that you can do to take care of your knives and to maintain an edge for a year or so.
Store your knives properly. Keep them in a block on your counter, in a cutlery tray in a drawer, on a magnetic bar on your wall, or keep sheaths on each of them and store them in a drawer. These measures keep protect your knives and you. You don’t want to be reaching into a drawer where the knives have exposed edges. This is dangerous to you and your knives. You can get a nasty cut and your knives can actually bend or lose some of those teeth by banging up against each other in the drawer. So protect your finger and your knives by storing them properly.
When using your knives, use them on a surface that will give and not on a hard, unscratchable surface. If the cutting board you are using doesn’t get scratched, then your knives are being dulled because the teeth are getting bent or broken off. This doesn’t mean that the teeth won’t bend or break off anyway; it just means that this will not happen as quickly. Every time you use a knife, the teeth will bend and/or break off.
So what’s the secret of having sharp knives? Maintain them at home with some kind of honing device or a three stage electric knife sharpener. There are some very good electric knife sharpeners on the market that will cost you approximately $130 and up. But if you don’t want to spend that kind of money for something that you will have to keep up with, then use a honing steel or device on a weekly basis. These honing gadgets will, if used properly, straighten the teeth on your knife. If using a steel or ceramic honing rod, use a 15 to 20 degree angle on each side of the knife. Pass the knife over the rod several times on each side until the knife feels sharper. The honing gadgets have two rods or pieces of ceramic crossed or over lapped at the proper angle. All you have to do is draw you knife over these rods until the knife feels sharp.
This maintenance should be done at least once a week from the day you purchase the knife or sharpened by a professional.
Even though this maintenance does straighten the teeth, it will cause some of the teeth to break off over time. When you use your knives, you will cause some teeth to break off if they hit a bone, or even hit the cutting board. Once enough of the teeth are broken off, you have a dull knife and honing it won’t help. Most consumers, who do maintain their knives on a frequent and regular basis, can maintain the edge for about a year. Then it is time to bring your knives to a professional knife sharpener and get a new edge on them.
Remember, a dull knife is a chef’s worst enemy.