4 Ways You May Be Ruining and Damaging Your Kitchen Knives

So you’ve invested in a great set of quality kitchen knives the last thing you want to do is ruin those new knives – right?

How you look after you kitchen knives will obviously determine their lifespan and a high quality kitchen knife will probably outlive you; however one of the problems is that many people don’t actually realize that they are damaging their kitchen knives without even knowing it.

The quickest way to damage and dull your knives is to routinely do one of the below and to be honest handwashing your kitchen knife after every use really isn’t all that difficult and time consuming and you’ll have the peace of mind that your best kitchen knives are safe and sound.

Dishwashers Ruin Knives –Fact

By far the quickest way to dull and damage your best kitchen knives is to put them in the dishwasher. Not only will the knife blade become damaged but if your knife has a wooden handle you’ll find that after repeated washing in the dishwasher the handle will eventually loosen and fall off or crack.

And if that wasn’t enough heartache you may even damage your actual dishwasher; the sharp edge of the knife blade can puncher the protective lining in the dishwasher which in turn will cause rust to start eating your machine away!

Leaving Food on Your Knife Blades

I know we all get a little lazy but leaving food on your kitchen knife long enough for it to dry is not going to do your knife any favors – why? Well if you have dried food on your knife blade is going to make getting that dried food off a challenge and reaching for an abrasive scourer is going to scratch those lovely knives of yours.

My tip: if you do manage to get dried food stuck on your knife baled just place and soak your knife in shallow water for a few minutes and the dried food should just wipe off with no abrasive scrubbing.

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Storing Your Knives in Your Utensil Drawer

If you are like me you take pride in your best kitchen knives and take special care when storing them, for me I like to use a good quality magnetic knife strip to keep my best knives away from the other mediocre knives in the kitchen (and high enough so the wife can’t get her hand on them).

However some people just don’t get it and throw their best knives in with the other utensils in the kitchen drawer where they can freely roll, tumble with the vegetable peeler and potato masher! – this is a sure way to dull those lovely knives of yours.

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Scrapping Your Knife on Your Chopping Board

I must admit I will put my hand up to this I tend to do this often and sometimes don’t even realize I’m doing it (it must be in my culinary school DNA). After you’ve finished chopping and prepping those vegetables or herbs how many of you then scrape that chopped food across your chopping board to make a nice neat pile? I know right nearly all of you!

Doing this will damage your knife, a quick run on a honing steel will sort out your knife but to avoid your knife getting damaged in the first place why not just spin your knife around and use the back, that way the flat knife spine side does the clearing, and you don’t ruin your knife blade.

If you follow the above tips your best kitchen knives should stay in tip top shape for longer – if you’ve invested money on those knives you’d better look after them!