Knife Care

The Cutting Edge - Knife Care

Have you ever tried to cut a tomato with a dull knife? Or worse, to launch into carving a turkey only to find your knife barely punctures the skin? A little attention to the care of your knives -- in particular the way in which you maintain and store them -- can eliminate forever those "dull" events in your life.

To cut well, a knife first must be of good quality. The best knives are made of tempered stainless steel and, for the most part, come from Germany. Second, a knife must be kept sharp. Try as you might to sharpen your own knives, it's best to have them done professionally on a grinding wheel. They should be sharpened every few months or so.

Third, to cut properly the blade's "feather" must be as straight as an arrow. The feather is the thinnest edge of the blade, the edge that actually does the slicing, dicing and carving. Every time a knife is used, however, its feather develops minute waves along its length, effectively decreasing its cutting ability. There are two ways to maintain the feather of a blade. Before cutting, use a steel; it's designed to straighten the feather and knock off any burrs. The second method of maintaining a good feather is with proper storage. Several options exist.

The best all-around knife storage system is a magnetic bar, which causes no interference with the feather of the blade. Placing two of these magnetic bars roughly 7 inches apart, one above the other, allows you to attach a knife 8 inches or longer -- a chef's knife, bread knife, slicer, etc. -- with the top bar holding the upper portion of the knife and the bottom bar holding the base. The bars can be placed on the sides of the cabinets, on any wall or even in drawers. In drawers, one bar is attached at the front and one toward the back, firmly holding the upper and lower portions of the blade.

Wooden blocks that sit on countertops generally hold four to six knives. Their advantage, of course, is that the knives are readily accessible. However, each time you remove a knife, it scrapes the interior of the slot, causing the feather to distort. To compensate, the knife must be steeled every time you use it.

Another type of knife storage consists of a simple slotted bar with a protective front shield. These bars are manufactured in Plexiglas, Lucite, wood and stainless steel and can accommodate as many as nine or ten knives. As with the wooden blocks, any time and nine has slipped out of its lot it should be steeled. in restaurant supply houses and some gourmet kitchen shops you can buy fabric knife cases with plastic inserts that hold up to twelve knives in divided pockets. These cases roll out with the knives in them.

Many people simply toss knives into drawers and don't give them thought until their used again. Cabinet companies now make a wood board slotted along the top that slides into a drawer. This method allows the knives to be slipped into the drawer horizontally, the blades held firmly in the slots.

Bear in mind that little of this advice applies to knives that are poor of quality - it is virtually impossible to improve their performance. A good knife, on the other hand, last for many years without losing its ability to perform well. I am still using the very first knife I had in cooking school 32 years ago.

For anyone who cooks, knives are the tools of this trade and well worth taking care of. Maintaining their performance is what knife storage is all about.