It’s one thing having a good quality chef’s knife, it’s another ensuring that you get the best out of it. Here are my inside tips on kitchen knife care and maintenance:
Always take your knives with you. When knives are left unattended, other chefs can use them and potentially cause damage.
Chopping against bones or other hard objects is a common way to cause knives to chip. To prevent this, you must only chop down onto a wooden board or block.
A lot of the kitchens that chefs work in tend to have stainless steel worktops and drawers. Knives are often thrown into these drawers, which can cause damage to the tip and blade.
Once you have a professionally sharpened knife, you need to maintain it daily. This will just need a couple of swipes with the steel. Eventually it will wear and cannot be kept sharp, at which point it is time to go back to the sharpener to put the edge back.
Knives are often damaged by not using a steel correctly. I sharpen most knives at 15 degrees each side, most people use a steel at about 20-25 degrees, meaning that they very quickly remove the sharp edge they have put on.
Chefs should use roll bags when not using their knives. Magnetic wall strips can also be used – these are great for protecting knives as this type of storage means that the blades don’t touch.
Blunt knives can cause repetitive strain injury to the wrist due to the extra pressure needed to cut, and there’s a higher risk of cutting yourself.
Chefs should always clean their own knives after use. In most kitchens, knives just get handed over to the pot washer who doesn’t really care about protecting them and they are often just chucked into the bottom of a sink.
Match the knife to the work — don’t use a fragile thin-bladed knife to cut through chicken bones.
Learn how to sharpen your own knives!