Cleaning your knives

[David Ross]

I've never really thought much about the proper way to clean a knife. I know that putting kitchen knives in the dishwasher is a no-no, but are there other cleaning methods that should be avoided? Do you simply wipe the knife with a kitchen towel? Or, do you wash it with soap and warm water?

The most treasured knife in my kitchen is a 8" Henckels Chef's Knife. It's nearing 30 years old and if it gets some nasty, sticky sauce on it after cutting through some pork ribs, I just run it under hot water and wipe if off with a towel. It hasn't apparently suffered any damage, and I keep the blade sharp. Should I be doing something different?

[weinoo]

That's what I do too. Sometimes, a soapy sponge.

I think the most important thing is to clean and put knives away immediately after use; letting them sit around is asking for trouble.

[Lisa Shock]

For metal knives, I learned years ago to not wash in hot water as it supposedly affected the metal and the edge. I also dry mine carefully, drawing the towel down the spine of the knife starting at the handle. I don't recall where I picked it up, but, the motion is a bit like using the steel but reversed.

I'll scrub my ceramic knives almost any which way, being cautious of the edge, or course.

[kitchensqueen]

I wash mine in soapy water like the rest of the dishes, but I'm careful to never let them sit in water. I also dry them right away and never leave them point-down in the dish rack - they get washed, dried and hung back up on the magnetic storage strip right away.

[pyrguy]

I wash mine in soapy water like the rest of the dishes, but I'm careful to never let them sit in water. I also dry them right away and never leave them point-down in the dish rack - they get washed, dried and hung back up on the magnetic storage strip right away.

Same here. I have everything from Forschners to handmade forged knives. That's the way knives were always treated until stainless tells became wide spread. Treated that way they'll last past the grandkids.

[Pierogi]

If I've only used it for cooked foods, or to chop veggies or fruit, then I wipe the blade down with a damp dishrag, and dry with a towel, and put away in the block. If it were at all sticky, I may run it under hot water to loosen up the stickies.

However. If I use one for raw animal protein, then I use soap and hot water, wiped down with the dishrag, then rinsed under hot water and dried, then back into the block. They never sit in water or in the sink. As soon as I'm finished boning the fish, slicing the beef, or de-fatting the pork shoulder, they get cleaned and put away, before I move onto the next step of the recipe.

For the veg/cooked foods, they usually wait, not in water, but on the counter, until there's a break in the action for me to clean them up.

[nickrey]

Using Japanese iron knives that will rust even if left briefly on the countertop with some water on them, I always wipe/wash appropriately straight away, dry, and put back in rack. If I'm feeling particularly obsessive, there will be an oiling step in there after the drying. Awkward, I know, but the cutting product is to die for.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Immediate wipe with a wet, soapy sponge, rinse and wipe with a cloth, dry with a dry one, and back onto the magnetic storage strip appropriate to the knife. Doesn't matter what I've cut with them, I always deal with them right away. I dry the same way as Lisa does - in a single fluid motion from the handle to the tip, along the spine of the knife. Nothing ever sits in the sink or the dishwater.

I collect knives (and should probably confess that elsewhere), and anything non-stainless also gets a nice fine coat of oil before being hung back up.

[Chris Hennes]

For metal knives, I learned years ago to not wash in hot water as it supposedly affected the metal and the edge.

That's interesting, I wonder if there is any soundness to that rationale. To the best of my knowledge the temperature of water used to wash dishes is at least several hundred degrees too low to affect the crystalline structure of the metal.

And after reading Modernist Cuisine I now make sure to wash my knives with soapy water regardless of what I am cutting. After all, the most recent salmonella outbreaks in the US have been due to produce, not meat.

[paulraphael]

The hot water thing is a myth. As Chris says, water can't get hot enough to do anything to the steel's temper. Hot water is better, because it does a better job of cutting grease. It will also evaporate more quickly, so it's easier to dry the knife. Especially important with carbon steel or any of the less stainless stainless steels.

It's ideal to wash with hot, soapy water and dry immediately after use. If you're doing a ton of prep and need to keep moving, a side towel soaked in sanitizer is a reasonable way to keep clean between washings. Just don't use anything containing chlorine bleach; it corrodes steel.

I think it's a good idea to cultivate good habits of motion when washing and drying knives. You're going to do it a lot when you're distracted and tired, so it's an easy time to cut yourself.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I wash and dry them as I use them by habit. Even though we had stainless knives growing up, my grandmother had carbon steel knives, so my father developed that habit, and I learned from him, and I have a both stainless and carbon steel knives. Always good to have them clean and ready as I need them.

[paulraphael]

The habits you cultivate with carbon steel knives are good ones to bring to stainless knives. Knife alloys aren't nearly as stainles as the ones used in pans and silverware. Very generally speaking, the higher the quality of the knife steel, the lower the quantity of corrosion-inhibitting chromium. Many high quality knives are just barely stainless. Even if they don't rust outright, the most superficial oxidation can dull the edge. So keeping a clean knife is especially helpful after cutting anything acidic, like onions, garlic, etc..

My stainless gyuto actually stained once from the acids in wild garlic. I needed to use BKF to get rid of the oxidation.

Edited May 2, 2011 by paulraphael (log)