Cutlery: “These are knives! He wants me to stab him!”
Building on the previous article regarding kitchen cutlery, here is part II of the series. For those of you with goldfish memories, the four sections we’re covering are:
- A sharp knife cuts faster and cleaner while using less force.
- A knife is dulled by use, and all knives dull in time.
- Serrations are not a replacement for a keen edge.
- Cheap knives don’t have to be bad knives.
This being part two, we’re going to touch on care, feeding, and sharpening of your cutlery.
A knife is dulled by use, and all knives dull in time.
But a sharp knife is dulled faster by:
- Cutting on inappropriate surfaces.
- Washing it in a dishwasher.
- Failing to wash or dry it off properly.
- Storing it improperly.
- Sharpening it wrong.
Regarding inappropriate surfaces, let me just come out and say it as plainly as possible: don’t cut on any surface that isn’t plastic or wood. Don’t cut on glass. Don’t cut on marble. And never, ever cut on the plate or in the pan. A usable wood cutting board is less than $20, and a usable plastic one is less than $10. I don’t care how pretty your glass or stone board is, it will wreck the edge of your knife and the edge is what you’re trying to maximize the lifespan of. Cutting boards are cheap, and replaceable. Your knives probably aren’t.
Switching gears slightly, let’s talk about cleaning. Dishwashers are not nice to your knives. They do not get along. People insist on running nice things through dish washers, completely disregarding that a dish washer is a hot, wet, pressurized environment, full of abrasives, solvents, and solutions with crazy pH balances. A knife is often made of metal and wood, which are both sensitive to abrasion, solvents, and acidic solutions. Washing knives in a dish washer is like smoking while you pump gas. You’re right in thinking that there probably won’t be an explosion, until there is.
Proper care means wiping off your blade when you’re done with it, and washing it as soon as possible. Hand washing a knife is easy if you have a nylon scrubbing brush with a handle on it (why don’t you?). You just lay the knife flat on a stable surface, soap up the brush, and use it to lightly scrub off the blade. Rinse it, and dry it with a thick lint free towel, or heavily folded paper towels. Just like that, you’ve got a clean knife and no damage to the blade or your hand.
Of course, now that you’ve washed your knife, it’ll have to go somewhere. Loose in a drawer, a dish rack, or on a counter is not going to cut it. Knives should be stored in covers (guards) or blocks. Magnet strips on the wall are also acceptable (handle down!). A good knife block is made of a dried, oiled hard wood like maple or cherry. Bamboo is popular right now, and that’s fine as long as it’s well oiled. Otherwise it tends to dry out, splinter, and crack. Storing your knives safely protects the edge (which, again, is why you own the knife) and your fingers (which helps you buy more knifes… not paying a doctor to reattach your fingers leaves you more money for cutlery).
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As a foot note, sharpening is a point of contention among cooks, chefs, and pretty much anyone else with an opinion. I personally side with Alton Brown on this matter, and say “let a professional sharpen your knives about once a year or as needed,” but some people really like doing it themselves. While I’d discourage this if you asked me, I will at least point to the excellent eGullet forums, where a lengthy post contains an excellent guide to sharpening. It goes into intense detail about knife composition and construction, as well as some of the metallurgical properties that make a knife more than just a jagged shank of metal.
And no matter how desperate you are, don’t use some electric “sharpening system” that lives on the back of a can opener. That’s like beating your blade with a hammer while grinding it against a granite wheel.
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And thus concludes the down-talking and derogatory tone of part II, “These are knives! He wants me to stab him!” Coming very soon is part III, titled “… past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives.”