KitchenKnifeGuru

Keep Your Kitchen Knives Sharp — Top Ten Tips

1) Always use a wooden or plastic cutting board. Never ever chop on glass, steel, ceramic, granite, or anything hard and unyielding. (Check out these John Boos maple boards or this Oneida plastic one.)

2) Never use your knives to hack at turkey joints or saw through frozen cookie dough (or anything else frozen for that matter). They’re not chisels or cleavers, but highly-tuned instruments.

Kitchen knife no-no

3) Never soak them in the sink—or leave them in a puddle of tomato puree. They may be stainless steel, but their super-fine edges are suckers for corrosion.

4) Always wash separately in hot water. Hand-dry only—never leave in a pool of wet. (Fun dish towels anyone?)

5) Ban them from the dishwasher—no matter what the manufacturer’s warranty says.

6) Never store them in a drawer so they can bang around with the riffraff. Always use a knife block or edge protectors.

7) Hone them regularly, the proper way. (I’ll teach you how—it’s easy!)

8) Sharpen them, or get them sharpened, once a year. Maybe sooner if you’re a heavy-duty user.

9) Never ever sharpen them with the can-opener sharpener like your Mom might of had. Either take them to a qualified pro or learn how to use a quality sharpening system.

10) Do not over sharpen. Hone (or steel) instead. (Take a look at my recommended honing steels.)