Here are 5 tips for keeping your knives sharper, longer to keep you from taking in your equipment for knife sharpening

Slicing cucumber after knife sharpening

1. Never Use Your Blade to Scoop Food

Knife sharpening can only do so much. Using the blade to scoop up food to place your ingredients in your dish can seem harmless, but you may be changing the shape of the cutting edge of your knife by doing so. You may think otherwise but under a microscope it would be quite clear just how fragile a sharpened blade is. Consider using a food scraper instead or the spine of the knife instead.

2. Don’t Cut Non-Food Items

Scooping up food is the most common misuse of a knife, but there are others. Things like using it to cut non-food items (like plastic packaging, tape, paper, cardboard, etc.), prying things up or open with it, or stabbing it into a wooden cutting board so that it stands up. It’s best to buy a pocket knife to do such tasks.

3. Clean your Knives Properly… And Dry Them!

Hand wash your knives with warm water and a mild dish soap. Never run your knife through the dishwasher as this speeds up the dulling of the blade by colliding with other utensils. Make sure to dry your knives off so they do not stain or rust.

4. Store Your Knives Properly

If you store your knives on a magnetic strip, put the knife on the strip spine first, not blade first. This prevents the force of the magnet from slamming against the knifeā€™s sharp edge.

5. Use The Right Cutting Board

Never cut anything on your counter tops or on any surface other than a cutting board designed specifically for cutting food. If at all possible, use wooden cutting boards as they are gentler on the blade than plastic ones, and never use glass cutting boards. Glass cutting boards will ruin your knife edge and dull your blade quickly.

6. BONUS! Sharpen Your Knives Often

You can use something as simple as a ceramic rod to keep a sharp edge on your knife. Some folks even use a strip of leather with polishing compound to maintain their knives. When your knives to get dull, have them sharpened professionally. Make sure to choose knife sharpening that uses stones instead of grinders. They will remove less steel and will not damage your knife by overheating it.

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