When you've invested in a good kitchen knife, you want it to last as long and as well as possible – ideally for the rest of your life. But it requires that you maintain your knife.
Fortunately, it's not that difficult. Often it just takes dropping a few bad habits and learning one or two new ones.
To help us with this guide, we've tapped the acclaimed chef Thomas Rode on the shoulder – if anyone knows how to treat their knives, it's him.
Tip 1: Use a good ceramic honing steel
When you bring out your kitchen knives, always give them a few strokes on a good ceramic honing steel.
And let me emphasize this for clarity. It must be a ceramic honing steel.
This is because your good kitchen knives are forged from hard metal. Therefore, a regular honing steel won't have a high enough hardness to work with your kitchen knives. A ceramic honing steel, with a hardness of 67 HRC, you can use for all kitchen knives – and it will help keep your knives fresh and sharp for many years to come.
Get your hands on a good ceramic honing steel here →
Tip 2: Never use the knife edge to scrape meat and vegetables off the cutting board
This tip is probably both the easiest and most effective for maintaining your kitchen knives. When you want to scrape meat or vegetables from your cutting board onto your pan, pot, or trash can, get into the habit of turning the knife around so you use the back of the blade.
This way you spare the knife edge and preserve the sharpness of your knife.
Tip 3: Store your knives properly
Do you have your kitchen knives lying in the kitchen drawer? That's a big no-go.
It exposes your knives to unnecessary bumps and scratches that will dull them over time – and the same goes, to many people's surprise, when you use metal knife magnets.
The metal on the knife magnet can also scratch and nick your knives. Instead, you should invest in a wooden knife magnet. This way you avoid damaging your knives, and you always have them at hand.
Protect your knives – try our walnut wood knife magnet, which can hold up to 7 knives →
Tip 4: Never put your kitchen knives in the dishwasher
If you take one tip with you from this article, it should be this one:
Never wash your kitchen knives in the dishwasher.
No matter how tempting it may be, you must never put your kitchen knives in the dishwasher. The dishwasher is harsh on the knife edge, and it exposes your knives to unnecessary chemical exposure. Even if your knives are stainless steel, you risk the knives corroding and losing sharpness.
Instead, you should wash them by hand with a soft brush and soapy water.
Bonus Tip: There is a difference in steel – and here's what you should go for
The guys at Gastrotools asked me if I could come help with my best tips for maintaining kitchen knives – and that's done now. But I can't help but add this last bonus tip.
If you want kitchen knives that stay sharp for life, you should invest in a kitchen knife made of hard steel. The knives you typically find in the supermarket for a few hundred kroner are made of softer steel. Therefore, you will find that they become dull after a short time.
Instead, I recommend you use kitchen knives made of hard steel. For example, like the knives here at Gastrotools, which share the characteristic that they are made of hard steel.
If you have a knife made of hard steel (and you take proper care of it according to my tips above), you are guaranteed sharp knives for many many years to come. Enjoy!
