When you have invested in a good kitchen knife, you want it to last as long and as well as possible – and preferably for the rest of your life. But that requires you to maintain the knife correctly.
Fortunately, it is not that difficult. Often it just requires you to get rid of a few bad habits and learn a new one or two.
Tip 1: Use a good ceramic sharpening rod
When you take out your kitchen knives, always give them a few strokes on a good ceramic sharpening rod.
And we have to emphasize here: It has to be a ceramic sharpening rod.
It is essential that the sharpening rod be ceramic as our kitchen knives are forged from hard Japanese steel. Therefore, a regular honing/sharpening rod won’t have a high enough hardness to sharpen your kitchen knives. A ceramic sharpening rod, with a hardness of 67 HRC, on the other hand, can be used for all kitchen knives - and will help keep your knives sharp for many years.
Get your hands on a high quality ceramic sharpening rod here →
Tip 2: Never use the blade edge to remove meat and vegetables from 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, pan or into the bin, get used to turning the knife over so that you use the back of the knife blade.
This way, you protect the knife edge and maintain the sharpness of the knife.
Tip 3: Store your knives properly
Do you store your kitchen knives in a kitchen drawer? That's a big no go.
This will expose your knives to unnecessary knocks and scratches that make them dull in the long run – and the same applies, if you use metal knife racks. As the metal on the knife rack can ding and scratch your knives. Instead, invest in a wooden knife rack. This way you avoid damaging your knives and you always have them close at hand.
Take care of your knives - try our wood knife rack in walnut or oak, which can hold up to 7 knives →
Tip 4: Never put your kitchen knives in the dishwasher
If you are to take one tip with you from this article, it should be this:
Never wash your kitchen knives in the dishwasher.
No matter how tempting it may be, never put your kitchen knives in the dishwasher. The dishwasher is hard on the knife edge, and it exposes your knives to unnecessary chemicals. Even if your knives are stainless, you still risk the knives corroding and losing their sharpness.
Instead, wash them by hand with a soft brush and soapy water.
Bonus tip: There is a difference between the steel that knives are forged from:
If you want kitchen knives that stay sharp for a lifetime, you should invest in a kitchen knife with hard Japanese steel . The knives you typically find in the supermarket for cheap, are made from softer steel. Therefore, you will find that they quickly become dull.
Instead, we recommend that you use hard Japnese steel kitchen knives. Like the knives we produce at Gastrotools, which all have in common that they are made from hard steel.
If you have a knife made of hard steel (and you look after it properly, cf. our tips above), you are guaranteed sharp knives for the next many years. Enjoy!
