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Ways You May Be Ruining and Damaging Your Kitchen Knives

Ways You May Be Ruining and Damaging Your Kitchen Knives

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You’ve finally taken the plunge and invested in a really good set of kitchen knives. They probably set you back a bit, so you want to make sure that these ones actually last the test of time and don’t end up in the knife graveyard outside your kitchen.

A good chef needs good tools, and if your knives are damaged the food you cook could suffer as a result. It’s highly important that you keep your knives clean and sharp. You might think that all you need to do is to wash your kitchen knives after use and sharpen them fairly regularly, however there are actually many seemingly harmless things that can damage your kitchen knives beyond repair.

4 Tips to Keep Your Knives in Tip-Top Shape

Some of these simple tips will really ensure that your best kitchen knives stand the test of time. let me know how you get on in the comments below.

Never Leave Food on the Knife Blades

It may be tempting to leave the clearing up until you have finished your meal and are feeling deliciously satisfied. But when it comes to cleaning your kitchen knives this is literally the worst thing you could do. When food is left on a knife, the food will dry. This then means that you will need to scrub the food off using an abrasive.

Using an abrasive on high quality knives will dull the blades quickly and leave you with a blunt knife to use for your culinary exploits. Instead, just take a minute after you have used the knife to rinse it off and clear any food from the blade.

Avoid Putting Your Knives in the Dishwasher

Putting your fancy knives in the dishwasher is actually the quickest way to ruin them for good. The blades will become damaged beyond repair after just a few washers and if the knife has a wooden handle, the extreme moisture and heat from the dishwasher will cause the handle to crack and eventually to fall off altogether. But there is more, your knives can also damage your dishwasher.

Dishwashers have a protective lining that is easily penetrable, a knife placed just slightly precariously will have that lining ripped to shreds in seconds. Keep your knives and your dishwasher safe and make a little extra effort to hand wash them.

Don’t Store Your Knives in the Utensil Drawer

You may be tempted just to chuck your knives in with everything else, and a lot of people do this without even thinking about it. However, a special tool needs some special care and just chucking them in with the rest of the utensils is a sure fire way to damage your knives. A really good idea is to invest in a magnetic knife strip. This will keep your knives safe from harm and also keep them secure.

Another idea is to have a dedicated knife drawer if you have enough room. Alternatively, you could buy a good knife bag, this way you can keep your sharpest and most expensive knives safe and still keep them in the utensil drawer with everything else.

Don’t Scrape Your Knife Along The Chopping Board

One of the worst things people do is to scrape their knives along the cutting board when they’ve finished cutting. It is very likely you are guilty of this, as most people are because it really isn’t something we would think of as dangerous. However, it is dangerous when it comes to protecting you knives and your chopping board. When you scrape your knife across the board to gather all the expertly chopped ingredients into a neat pile your knife will catch on the surface of the board.

This will cause small nicks to form in the blade of the knife which will dull the blade and cause it to become fragile and susceptible to breaking. Instead of using your knife to scrape the food off of the board, use a plastic utensil such as a spatula that won’t become damaged by the action. If your knife has already become damaged because of this then use a honing steel or a wet stone to clean up the blade and sharpen the edges.

Now, after reading this you have no excuse to not keep your fancy new knives in perfect order. If you want your kitchen knives to last the test of time then you need to look after them.

Andy Nash