If you’re into the culinary arts, few things beat having a brand new set of cooking knives that are sharper than ever. Cooking is an art, and considering that the knives are like your version of a staple painting tool, you want to take care for them just as a painter would care for their brushes. Many people don’t properly care for their kitchen knives because they assume as long as they still cut, they’re fine, but overtime, you’ll begin to see the wear.

5 Kitchen Knife Care Tips To Maintain Sharp Knives

When you get careless with your kitchen knife maintenance, that’s when you run into issues down the line, but to ensure that doesn’t happen; I’ve compiled a list of tips for you to follow.

1. Hone the Knives Regularly

   Honing is essentially like lazy sharpening. If you bought a knife kit, it most likely came with a honing rod which is made of steel. Before you cook, you want to hone your knife by running it along the rod at a 20 degree angle towards you. This is something you want to do to each side of the knife four times each.

2. Sharpen the Knives Annually

   Overtime, your knives will collect nicks and other marks, but when it’s time to sharpen the blades, you don’t want to use an electric sharpener. This is where so many culinary enthusiasts go wrong because the electric sharpeners strip away too much of the metal on the blade. Many chefs recommend using a water stone, but those take practice. If you’re not an advanced knife sharpener, get a handheld tool like an Accusharp.

3. Don’t Cut Up and Down

   The up and down cutting method dulls the blade far faster than the rocking and sliding method. However, regardless of how you cut, the blade is going to dull overtime, so you want to stick with using wooden and plastic cutting boards. When you’re using the rock n’ slide method, you want to make sure the knife remains in contact with the cutting board.

4. Wash the Knives by Hand

   This is one of the most important things to remember. Every time you cook, you’re beating up your kitchen knives (it’s the harsh reality of it all). So, you want to make sure that you hand wash them after every use – don’t let them sit in the sink. If your knives are made from Carbon steel, you want to make sure you dry them b hand rather than letting them air dry because that’ll allow rust to form.

5. Store the Knives Separately

   If you just throw your cooking knives in the drawer with the other utensils, you’re throwing them to the wolves. Smaller utensils shift in drawers, and every time they hit your knives, they’re damaging them. Therefore, you want to lay them nicely in their own drawer or in a knife block.