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Steel kitchen knife care tips: cleaning advice, sharpening and storage
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7 Apr 2016
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Acquire a quality kitchen knife is a good thing, but knowing how to clean, how to maintain a good sharpening, and the best way to store it, is even better. Some tips to preserve the efficiency of your different tools:
Directions for use
In order to protect the durability of your kitchen knives cutting edges without sharpening too often, we highly recommend to:
-Always use a wood or plastic chopping board as a cutting support
-Never cut on countertop made of stone (granite or marble), glass or stainless steel;
-Never cut food in a saucepan or frying pan;
-Always use the best appropriate knife for the food you are cutting, so as to avoid damaging the blade.
Steel blade sharpening: all information on efficient sharpening
A regular sharpening of your stainless steel knives blades enables to optimize and keep sharp edges for a long time.
A tip: Don’t wait for the blade to become blunted before sharpening your kitchen knife. Anticipate its possible deterioration and prefer sharpening when the blade still cuts. We strongly advise to sharpen your blades at least twice a week for a professional use and twice a month for domestic use.
The benefits of a regular sharpening of your steel blades
The sharpening of a steel knife is one of the current tasks made in a kitchen, just like the cleaning of the different accessories, the choice of products or food and the act of cooking itself.
The correct and regular care of a kitchen knife ensure the blade to keep its efficient cutting edge to favour:
-An easy, precise and clean cutting of the food
-A better cutting feeling for a greater pleasure of use
-Fastest execution for greater productivity
-Less fatigue in the move repetitions
In order to realise in the best conditions this essential operation, which may seem a bit constraining at first but rapidly acquired with a bit of practice, several tools are at your disposal, such as the sharpening stone or sharpening steel.
Sharpening stone and steel
Knife care with a sharpening stone
There are several sharpening stones with more or less stability in resin or natural stone. In this last category, the best one is without any doubt the Coticule stone of Vielsalm.
When choosing your tool, the most important is to pay attention to the size of the grain, which thinness or thickness influence the sharpening quality of your steel blade.
Place the steel blade of your knife on the stone while keeping a 40° angle. Make forward and backward moves on all the length to correctly sharpen it. Then wipe it to remove the debris.
Knife care with a sharpening steel
The sharpening steel is usually used by the professionals. It is an efficient care for the cutting edges of your steel kitchen knives but it cannot renew a too much damaged edge.
It is composed of a handle and a long rod usually made of very abrasive striped steel.
In order to correctly sharpen your knives with a sharpening steel, be careful to pass the rod in the cutting direction with a successive back and forth action.
Kitchen knife care: cleaning and storage
Kitchen knife care and cleaning
When cleaning your knives and other kitchen utensils, you have to take some precautions:
-Always wash them after each use, with a sponge or damp cloth in soapy water. Rinse thoroughly with clear water;
-Immediately wipe your knives with a dry cloth before storing them;
-Never use the abrasive side of the sponge;
-Avoid dishwasher, except when explicitly authorised on the packaging.
Storage
In order to protect a sharp edge:
-Avoid storing together your knives in drawers.
-Protect them one from the other with clean cloth
-Prefer a magnetic bar or an adapted storage block
-Place your tools in a secure place, away from children.
In case you do not want to do the sharpening by yourself, especially for your high-end Evercut® knives, do not hesitate to return them and we’ll do the sharpening for you in the shortest possible period of time.
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