Knife Care Recommendations Dos and Don'ts
- For professional kitchens, we recommend using a softer cutting board made from a polyvinyl acetate. This material resembles the softer texture of wood and will aid in edge retention. Other cutting board materials such as soft polyethylene plastic are suggested as well.
- For home use, length grain soft wood or end-grain hard wood cutting boards are preferred. In commercial kitchens, wood cutting boards are often not allowed by local health departments.
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Never cut on these surfaces:
- glass
- steel
- hard plastic
- granite
- porcelain
- Corian
- Bamboo cutting boards are not recommended because of how hard the surface is, but are extremely eco-friendly and typically affordable. Although, steel is tough, a sharpened edge is delicate. This delicate edge will dull if used on hard surfaces.
- Always maintain a sharp edge. The more frequently you sharpen your knife the less material you will grind away to bring the edge into a sharpened state. Ultimately, this means you will prolong the life of your knife. It is also safer to work with a sharp knife. A sharp blade also produces cleaner cuts which means better looking and more consistent prep work.
- As mentioned earlier, never hack at coconuts, plastic containers or bones. These products will win when put up against your knife's delicate edge.
- Never use the blade to pry at equipment, jar lids etc. This action, over time, can loosen pins in the handle or promote the blade's tang or bolster to loosen.
- Never put a knife through a dishwasher. The high heat and high water pressure environment will wreak havoc on a knife's construction of bolster and handle. It can also be jostled around which could dull or chip the knife's edge. Harsh and corrosive detergents can also promote rusting.
- Whet stone vs Wet stone. The old-fashioned term for sharpening used to be called "whetting" so, any stone used for sharpening was a "whetstone". Technically, this is accurate, so whether the sharpening stones are diamond, or ceramic, or lubricated with oil or water, they are all ‘whet stones’.
- We recommend ceramic water stones. They make for easy use and cleanup, do not require oil, and are affordable. They are also available in a broad range of grits that can handle everything from repairing to polishing a blade's edge. They are easily flattened, which is important, when sharpening to maintain an even edge. Never sharpen your knife on a stone that is uneven or warped.