How do you care for your kitchen knives?
Parts
1. Keep the blades separated from each other; in other words, not jumbled together in the kitchen drawer. A good storage place is a magnetic bracket on the wall or a wooden knife block or holder.
2. Use the knife for its intended purpose; in other words, a chef’s knife should not be used to slice bread. Each home should have the following basic set of knives: a chef’s knife, a bread knife and a small utility knife
3. If possible, always use a wooden chopping board. Being softer, a wooden board is more “knife-friendly” than a melamine board.
4. Respect your knives. Wash soil off root vegetables before chopping.
5. Thoroughly wash and dry your knives after each use. The best method is by hand, using a mild detergent.
6. The instructions for maintaining knives also apply to the sharpening steel.: wash and dry the steel after each use. The sharpening action produces extremely fine metal dust, which can clog the steel and compromise the sharpening result, unless the steel is washed and dried after use.
7. Both the knife being sharpened and the sharpening steel must be clean when carrying out the sharpening operation. The knife should be held at an angle of approximately 15° to the sharpening steel, and the action should be gentle. Knives used at home should be sharpened about once a month. A bread knife should not be sharpened at home; rather, it is a job for the professional, or a replacement knife should be purchased. When Hackman Handy knives leave the factory, they are already sharpened, and it is not necessary to get rid of the “factory blade” before first use.