How to Care for Kitchen Knives

These tips work for serrated and non-serrated knives!

Knives can be scary, especially when they’re out of alignment or dull. However, just because a knife is dull doesn’t mean you need to go buy a new knife. In fact, if you buy mid to high-quality knives and take good care of them, they can last for decades. In this post, I’ll tell you how to take care of your knives at home to make them last for generations to come.

Everyday Use

• Hone Your Blade Every Time

Every time before using your knife, you should hone it. "Honing" just means using a honing steel to straighten out the blade of your knife. This might seem super chef-y and complicated, but it's actually really easy. Most knife sets come with a honing steel, which is just a long, groovy (meaning it has grooves, not that it wears 70s fashion) steel rod with a handle. To hone your blade:

1. Hold the honing steel by its handle with your non-dominant hand, pointing the steel rod away from your body.

2. In your dominant hand, hold your knife by its handle and rest the blade at a slight angle (about 20 degrees) against the honing steel.

3. Lightly drag the knife at a diagonal down the honing steel so that the whole blade, from base to tips, drags against the honing steel. Repeat this motion several times on each side on the knife. (Jamie Oliver has a great demonstration video of this on his YouTube channel.)

• Use a wooden cutting board

Wood or bamboo cutting boards are not only more sustainable than plastic cutting boards, but they are also better for your knives. However, cutting on plastic is better than cutting on stone, porcelain, baking trays or other hard surfaces that might damage the blade of your knife, so use a plastic cutting board if you don't have or can't afford a wooden one.

• Wash and Store your knives Properly

Make sure to wash your knife by hand immediately after using it. Letting your dirty knife sit in the sink can cause the blade to break down more quickly than if you wash, dry and store your knife right after using it. After it is washed and dried, cover your knife with a sheath or store it in a knife rack. Storing your knife loose in a drawer is not only dangerous for your fingies, but it can also damage the blade if it is constantly hitting or rubbing against other utensils.

Long-Term Maintenance

Honing your knife does not sharpen the blade; it just keeps the blade in proper alignment. This means that you should not only hone and care for your blade on a daily basis but also sharpen it about one to two times per year. To do this, you need to use a whetstone, which is basically just a rectangle of super fine sandpaper, with slightly coarser grit sandpaper on one side and slightly finer grit sandpaper on the other. If you don't already own one, they usually cost around $20 to $50 and are definitely worth the investment.

To sharpen your knife on a whetstone:

1. Soak the whetstone in water until bubbles stop rising from it. This will take about 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Set the whetstone on its stand if it came with a stand, or on a dry towel on a flat surface if it did not come with a stand.

3. Starting with the coarser side of the whetstone facing up, position the blade at a 20-degree angle to the stone with the sharp edge facing away from your body. Then, drag the knife down the length of the stone on a diagonal, pulling the heel of the knife toward yourself. Repeat this several times on each side of the blade with the coarser grit side of the stone, and then several more times per side with the finer grit side of the stone. (This Tasty video has a great whetstone demonstration starting around the 3-minute mark.)