Know your knives

A good set of knives should last 20-30 years, but common mistakes made in the kitchen shorten their life span dramatically, writes Bea Taylor.

Have you ever tried cutting a pumpkin with a butter knife? You’d be advised not to – the result is a knife well and truly wedged into the flesh of the pumpkin.

Incorrectly using a knife for the wrong task is one of the most common ways to ruin it, says Shannon Fryer, operations manager at House of Knives in Auckland’s Mt Eden.

“A paring knife should be used for trimming, topping and tailing – not for opening a packet of bacon.”

A cook’s knife, the most common knife for kitchen use, cuts anything from herbs to pumpkins and should be the main knife in your set. A paring knife is for the smaller items; a carving knife is ideal for hot and cold meats, not for heavy vegetables; and a pastry knife should be used for breads, doughs and sponges.

Dishwashers are the other silent killer of knives. “Companies will claim that their knives are dishwasher safe, but in reality they’re not going to last as long if they’re always put in the dishwasher,” says Fryer.

The detergents can be abrasive and the movement of the dishwasher can chip the blade. The best solution is to wash knives in warm soapy water and dry with a soft cloth before putting them in storage straight away.

“I once left one of my Japanese knives out on the bench to dry overnight and in the morning it had rusted,” says Fryer, “Japanese knives are more vulnerable however, a German knife is a lot stronger at resisting corrosion.”

Owner of House of Knives John Fryer says

New Zealanders have developed a particular, if destructive, way to store knives; by chucking them in the cutlery draw.

“There’s no one correct method to store knives but the goal is the same – to protect the edges and afford a degree of safety to those around,” he says.

Drawers are a big no-no, says Shannon Fryer, as the blades will bang together and chip. Only store knives in drawers if the knives have a blade guard or if the draw has a liner (a plastic insert with cuts in it to hold the knives still).

A common storage solution is a knife block, which is particularly good for renters who aren’t allowed to drill holes in the wall for a metal knife rack. Wooden blocks limit the type of knives to store, so she suggests a magnetic knife block.

A dull knife is a dangerous knife. “It’s a fairly common saying,” she says, “the more pressure you have to apply, the more likely the knife is going to slip, and a blunt knife wound will take longer to heal than a sharp knife wound.”

A knife steel is wrongly assumed and used to sharpen a knife. Its purpose is only to realign the knife’s blade. “Use a steel following each use of the knife,” advises Shannon Fryer, “if you do this you should only have to actually sharpen the blade every 18 months.”

To sharpen, use a stone or a professional sharpener, “I’m not a fan of the pull-through sharpeners, they don’t actually sharpen a blade properly,” says John Fryer.

A good set of knives should last between 20 and 30 years. But only if they’re looked after.

This means using a wooden chopping board, using a steel, only sharpening it when it needs to be sharpened, storing it correctly and keeping it out of the dishwasher.