A top set of knives costs hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. How long they last is up to you. Here are the seven rules that experts say are worth following.
By Travis Neighbor Ward
Aside from the fact that I use my kitchen knives incorrectly -- I regularly reach for a steak knife to julienne carrots or a salmon slicer to cut bread -- I have just learned that the way I take care of them is disgraceful. By day my knives are stored randomly in a drawer among other small utensils; by night they find themselves alongside cutlery in the dishwasher. Other than on Thanksgiving, they are never sharpened. But if you are like me in this regard, don't be disheartened. For I have also just learned that taking care of knives is quite simple -- and well worth the trouble, particularly if you've invested in top-quality knives designed to last a lifetime, such as those made by Wusthof-Trident or J.A. Henckels.
"When it comes to maintenance, the first question you should ask yourself is how long you want your knives to last," says Jay Alpert, president of Professional Cutlery Direct, a leading mail-order retailer catering to professional and home cooks. "Their quality to begin with is important, but what you do to them makes a huge difference." With this in mind, I asked Alpert and other experts in the field what they consider the cardinal rules of knife maintenance.
RULE NUMBER ONE: Handle your knives the way you handle fine china. They look sturdy, but knife blades are vulnerable to breaking and chipping. Protecting them means, first and foremost, placing knives carefully on the countertop, not dropping them, and avoiding the temptation, however great, to use the knife in lieu of a can opener or screwdriver.
RULE NUMBER TWO: Don't put knives in the dishwasher. This is an absolute no-no. "All knives are 'dishwasher-safe,' but no good knives go in the dishwasher," says Steven Bridge of Bridge Kitchenware, a favorite shop with professional chefs and home cooks in New York City. "The knives rattle together and bump up against other things in there. You should always wash them by hand." In the case of forged knives, whose blades are made by subjecting a solid piece of red-hot steel to tons of pressure, the blade can also be detempered by the dishwasher's scalding water. (More expensive knives tend to be forged; less expensive ones are stamped, or their blades are cut like cookies from a sheet of steel.)
"When a knife is forged it's tempered, or exposed to a series of heating and cooling processes," Alpert explains. "That gives it the right amount of hardness-hard enough to cut with, but not brittle. If you expose the knife again to high heat, such as in a dishwasher, you can detemper it and make it brittle." To tell a forged knife from a stamped one, look at the bolster, which is the section of the knife that extends vertically from the top of the handle to the bottom of the blade. If there's no bolster, it means it's probably stamped.
RULE NUMBER THREE: Dry knives immediately after washing. If you don't, rust spots may develop-a real problem with carbon-steel knives (see rule number seven). While spots can usually be removed with a scouring detergent, they can accumulate over time and eventually weaken the metal.
RULE NUMBER FOUR: Store your knives properly when they're not in use. Most storage solutions are designed to protect both the knife edge from getting chipped or dulled and you from accidentally cutting yourself. "Storing a knife will also reduce the blade's exposure to air," says Alpert, "which is good since oxidation can contribute to dulling." The most popular solution is a slanted wooden knife block made of oak, birch, maple, or walnut that costs from $30 to $100. From the standpoint of knife maintenance the key, Alpert says, is that the block be made of a softer material than the blade. "I've seen some attractive-looking blocks made of Corian, the synthetic material used for countertops," Alpert explains. "But you could chip the knife tip just by putting it into the block." (One Japanese manufacturer, Global, begs to differ: Its blocks, which retail for $180, are made of stainless steel to match its all-steel knives.)
"Blocks aren't really useful if you're mixing and matching knives from different manufacturers, because the knives may not all fit into the slots," says Deborah Stowe, who has cooked in professional kitchens, including the Mark Hotel in New York. That's why some cooks choose to store their knives in drawer trays with compartments of different lengths (approximately $40), or to place plastic blade guards on the knife edges and store them loosely in a drawer. (Such guards go for $2 to $4 each.)
Finally there are magnetic knife bars, which are designed to hang on the wall and cost about $20 each. They keep knives easily accessible and on display --something that Stowe points out is great "if you think that knives are pretty." But while they are popular in professional kitchens, magnetic bars can be dangerous-"I've heard a lot of stories of cats rubbing up against them and getting cut," says Bridge-and they don't protect from oxidation.
RULE NUMBER FIVE: If you own a knife with a wooden handle, treat it like wood. Don't leave it soaking in water. And wipe the handle dry after you're done using it. Also oil it periodically (every six months is ideal) using a food-safe mineral oil; if you don't, the wood may crack over time and the seal between the blade and the handle may loosen. Many of today's knives have handles made of a synthetic or Stamina, a material composed of resin-infused wood. "Stamina can be beautiful," says Alpert. "The quality is excellent. You won't have any problem with seal gaps forming." The risk with synthetic: it can melt, so don't leave it on a hot stove top.
RULE NUMBER SIX: Don't chop food on marble. "It ruins the knife's edge right away," says Rocco DiSpirito, executive chef-proprietor of Union Pacific in New York. He considers a rubber cutting board the best, since it allows the blade to enter it slightly when hit; it's also the most sanitary. Wood behaves similarly, DiSpirito says, but should be sanded once it becomes scarred; otherwise bacteria may form in the crevices.
RULE NUMBER SEVEN: Steel -- don't sharpen -- your blades often. Experts emphasize this rule the most, and it's the one that home cooks tend to ignore. You steel, or hone, a blade by passing a tapered steel rod mounted on a handle over it at a 25-degree angle. This returns the blade to razor sharpness and should be done at least every other time it is used. Unlike sharpening, which requires a stone or electric machine and should be done no more than once every six months, steeling a knife removes little metal from the blade. "But if you don't steel the blade often you will have to sharpen it more frequently," says Alpert. "You will therefore remove more metal from the blade, which will eventually alter its basic shape."
According to DiSpirito, carbon-steel knives, typically produced by the best Japanese manufacturers, should be sharpened daily. "That's if you want the blade to go right through, say, a tomato or pepper," he says. DiSpirito prefers carbon-steel blades because they can achieve an unparalleled degree of razor-sharpness; what deters many cooks is that they need constant honing and are highly prone to rusting. The blades on most high-end European and American knives are made of high-carbon stainless steel -- a mixture of stainless-steel, vanadium, and molybdenum. It rarely rusts and is easily sharpened, but won't become quite as sharp as carbon-steel.
Then there are those home cooks who opt for the easiest maintenance solution of all: plain stainless-steel knives. "They don't really need sharpening because they never get really sharp," says Alpert. "Stainless-steel knives are hollow ground, which means that their edge is ground out using a machine. That process makes it weaker and more prone to chipping. If you buy these, just plan on using them and ultimately throwing them away."
#
