Caring Properly for Kitchen Knives

Regardless of how you sharpen your knives, be sure to wash and dry them both before and after sharpening. Once you get used to having a sharp knife, you’ll know right away when yours is losing its edge. Suddenly, cutting becomes a lot more difficult. One easy test is sliding your knife along a peach or tomato, exerting no pressure. If the knife is sharp, it’ll pierce the skin right away.

This is just an introduction to the advantages of sharpening and caring for kitchen cutlery. Read on for some more recommendations.

Sharpening Knives and Other Tips for Caring for Your Kitchen Knives

Owning a set of kitchen knives, regardless of their type, requires certain use and maintenance in order to keep them sharp and working correctly. Whether you invested in quality kitchen knives or own a set of discount knives, you will want to keep them sharp and handling well.

The first rule of use for your kitchen knife is to be sure that your blade lands on a soft surface, such as wood or plastic, instead of a hard surface like ceramic or metal. Striking your kitchen cutlery against hard surfaces will rapidly dull the blade and hinder the performance of your kitchen knife, even if you are using high quality ceramic or stainless steel cutlery.

It’s sometimes tempting to use the kitchen knife to pry something, use it as a screwdriver or chisel and many other actions for which the kitchen cutlery is not intended. Even using the handle of your knife as a hammer is not recommended, unless it is specifically built for that task. The pins, springs and handle can loosen or break, rendering your kitchen knife useless.

You should keep your kitchen cutlery away from sand and gritty materials. Be especially aware when you are using your knives outside, for instance if you are camping, fishing or just barbequing outdoors. Be aware of your kitchen knife and if it gets wet, you should immediately dry it. When you are washing your kitchen cutlery, do so in mild, soapy water and then dry it completely with a towel, instead of allowing it to drip dry. You should always wash your kitchen cutlery by hand and dry it immediately after.

Wood tends to swell, so it you have wooden handled knives, it is best not to immerse them in water for any period of time. You can rub mineral oil on wooden knife handles to help them keep their luster. You can also increase the lifetime of your wooden handled kitchen knives by rubbing lemon oil or furniture polish into the wood handle occasionally.

Stainless steel cutlery should not rust in the humidity and it can withstand acids that it is exposed to in daily use. However, stainless steel does not mean 100 percent rust proof. The coarser the stainless steel surface is, the more likely it is to corrode. To ensure your stainless steel cutlery is corrosion resistant, you want to purchase knives with finely ground or polished surfaces.

Another option for kitchen cutlery is ceramic knives which are durable and long lasting. However, ceramic knives should also not be put in the dishwasher. They are very easy to clean; a wipe and a rinse is all that is needed to keep them in great condition for years to come.

When storing your knives, it is best to choose a knife block to protect the blades. Never put your knife into the wooden knife block wet – wood absorbs water and you could introduce mold and mildew into your knife block which could effectually ruin your kitchen knives. If you are going to keep them in a drawer, be sure that they are not tossed around too much. Jostling against other knives or instruments could cause your knife blades to chip or dull unnecessarily. It is fine to keep them in a drawer, but they should be sleeved or in compartments to avoid colliding with other utensils or inadvertently cutting you as you search in the drawer for the knife you need. Forged cutlery or stainless steel cutlery should be properly stored to ensure it lasts a long time.

Taking care of your kitchen knives is quite easy if you follow the steps outlined above:

- Keep knives out of the dishwasher
- Wash kitchen knives right after use and dry them immediately after washing
- Store them in a wooden knife block, in sleeves or in a compartmentalized drawer

Taking good care of your knives and using them properly will ensure that you will have great kitchen knives for years to come.

Ben Anton, 2007

Ben Anton lives in the Northwest and writes for DLK.
Ben Anton invites you to read about proper kitchen knife maintenance at our easy to use discount knife and sharpener website.

Tags: blades, Cutlery, kitchen cutlery, kitchen knives, knife sharpener, knife sharpening

July 05 2008 | Cutlery | No Comments »

Choosing Kitchen Cutlery – Some Tips

Kitchen cutlery comes in all sizes and shapes. Each small variation results in a different use. There are long ones, short ones, wide ones, narrow ones, curved ones, angled ones and the list goes on and on. They are made from carbon steel, stainless steel, stamped steel, ceramic or even plastic. choosing the correct one can make your kitchen experience enjoyable or an arduous chore.

Opinions, of course, vary all over the map. Here are a few things that will provide you with some orderly direction in choosing kitchen cutlery.

Tips On Choosing Kitchen Cutlery

Purposeful Design

Most quality kitchen cutlery comes in sets because no one knife can do it all. You’re not going to use the same blade to slice bread as you are to slice prime rib, even though they’re both designed for slicing. And you don’t need a cleaver to be as flexible as a filet knife, because they don’t do the same job. Most kitchen cutlery is named after the job they are designed to perform, which will make things easier for you to choose. Make sure the knife fits your hand well and has great balance. The top brands have exceptional balance, which will minimize fatigue and turn a chore into a treat.

Helpful Knowledge

If you know a chef or someone who cooks like one, don’t be afraid to ask them their opinion on their favorite kitchen cutlery. My experiences with German and Japanese blades are extremely favorable. I’ve found their level of quality in both workmanship and materials to be stellar.

Find out how the edge is made on the knife you’re interested in and learn how it works. See what kind of edge works best for the task at hand. Learn about the steel that it’s made from. Cheap steel makes for cheap kitchen cutlery. Some knives are forged and are generally regarded as of a higher quality than those that are stamped from sheets of steel. But today, a high quality stamped blade may be better than a low quality forged one. Put your trust in a company with a great reputation for quality materials and workmanship.

On The Edge

Hollow-ground, serrated, chisel-ground or convex edge, how do you choose your kitchen cutlery? That all depends on what you’re using it for. Most top chefs will tell you that the chisel-ground single-sided edge will cut absolutely the best slices of anything.

Since they are much more economical to mass produce, most kitchen cutlery is either hollow ground or serrated. For most home chefs those two types of edges will do anything and everything they will ever need. To further add to the confusion, many companies now offer kitchen cutlery with super sharp ceramic blades that supposedly never need sharpening. The downside of ceramic is that they are so hard that they can’t easily be sharpened. On the plus side though, they are amazingly sharp, lightweight and they even come in colors. The pluses far outweigh the minuses.

Yes, we’ve all seen TV commercials where some wonderful piece of kitchen cutlery cuts through an aluminum can, but that’s only useful if you eat aluminum cans. You can make cooking into a joy by choosing the proper kitchen cutlery.

Neece, like everyone else, enjoys the finer things in life. She researches and discovers the best things available so you can find the luxuries you deserve as well as gifts for those you love all in one convenient place. http://www.authenticindulgences.com/

Tags: blades, chef's knife, Cutlery, forged steel, kitchen cutlery, serrated knife

July 02 2008 | Cutlery | No Comments »