Knife Care

When it comes to caring for your knives, one of the most important aspects is finding a safe and secure place to look after your knives. A place like a knife rack, block or drawer will be of benefit and keep them out of harm’s way.

To get the best level of service from your knife, you should look to clean your knife after every use. If your knife is one that should be hand-washed only, you should use a soap-filled cloth and very gently scrub your knife. Once this has been completed, you should wash the knife off with warm water and then dry your knife with a clean cloth.

You should always ensure that your knives are dry when they are clean. This is because there are certain knives that can rust, even when it is stored away. If you use a carbon steel knife, which is more prone to rusting than certain knives, you should regularly oil the knife with a quality mineral oil as this will help to reduce the likelihood of corrosion.

A good way to ensure that your knife is being properly looked after is to steel it on a regular basis. This will help to ensure the cutting power of your blade remains at a good standard and that the natural rolling towards either side of the knife will be reduced. If you want to steel a blade, you should keep the knife flat up against a steel surface and then slide the knife along the edge. While doing this, you should raise the back side of the blade, stopping when the blade begins to cut into the edge of the surface. From here you should sweep your blade towards the tip of the steel, ensuring that all of the knife edge is in contact with the steel surface. You should do this movement ten times for both sides of the blade.

To preserve your blade, you should invest in a good quality wood or plastic board, as opposed to a ceramic, marble or glass board.