5 MINUTE READ
BY: DAVID OLKOVETSKY
Taking care of your kitchen knife isn’t as hard as it seems. And while it might be tempting to let your knife sit with the other dishes in the sink (don’t do it), or toss it haphazardly into the dishwasher (really, don’t do it), regular maintenance will make a world of difference. Even if you fall into the camp of "I cook only to survive", you'll find that when your knife maintains its incredibly sharp edge, and glides effortlessly through rib eyes and rock-hard squash alike, you'll start to truly enjoy rolling up your sleeves and conquering the kitchen.
Here’s what you need to know, to keep your knives in mint condition:
Perhaps it’s obvious—but it needs to be said.
Think about it: the number of times you’ve used your kitchen knife to pry open a can, open boxes, break down a small animal, and hammer through frozen foods. Any of these can and will dull, twist, or chip your blade because your kitchen knife is designed to cut through (non-frozen) foods only. Using it for any other purpose can seriously damage your cutting edge. Specialty boning knives are meant exclusively for breaking down poultry, bone-in meats, and fish—so don’t use your chef knife, santoku, or nakiri for hacking through bones.
hen you’re done with meal prep, wash your knife with dish soap and warm water. When washing your knife, please make sure to use a non-scratch sponge. Some sponges use aluminum oxide on the abrasive side, which can leave scratch marks on your blade and dull your edge. After washing, dry your knife immediately. We recommend knife magnets for storage (more on that later).
The experts at Artisan Revere have seen the most expensive knives fall victim to rust spots, discoloration, and worse—just from being left out on the counter, or with all the other dirty dishes in the sink. It’s best to avoid an expensive lesson, and take just a few seconds to take care of your kitchen knife. There are quite a few products out there for removing rust, like Bark Keeper's Friend and Simichrome. However, the best product we've found for cleaning up discoloration is Shadazzle, and we can't recommend it highly enough.
An occasional drop or two of food grade mineral oil throughout the handle and the blade can keep your blade from reacting to highly acidic foods like lemons and limes. It will also prevent acidic or salty solutions from stripping your blade of its free chromium layer, which is a fancy way of saying it will prevent patina, or worse, rust. Food grade mineral oil isn’t just great for preventative knife care; it can also reverse early patination on a non-stainless blade. Any food-grade mineral will do the trick—and they also work wonders for your cutting board. If your knife is a high-carbon, “non-stainless” blade, you should apply a layer of food grade mineral oil after every single use, as this will prevent corrosion.
If you’ve already got some corrosion, as evidenced by orange spots on your blade, we suggest attempting to remove it with Shadazzle.
There are only a few cutting boards that you should use to keep your knife sharp and maintain a sanitary kitchen: wood, plastic or synthetic rubber. Stick with wooden cutting boards, made with walnut, cherry ,or maple wood for fruits and vegetables. The janka hardness of walnut and cherry woods is just right for your knives, while maple is a bit harder and less expensive, but will require more frequent sharpening. We offer a best-in-class, rescued end-grain custom quality board, but there are also less pricey face-grain options (note: they'll dull your knives much faster).
Plastic boards are inexpensive, and absolutely fine for fruits and vegetables, but these boards are best used for meats and fish because they can be sanitized in the dishwasher. Remember to replace your plastic boards once they start to get too many deep scars—that's where bacteria like to reside.
Additionally synthetic rubber boards, like this one from Hasegawa, are superb for advanced knife users who primarily employ slicing motions—they’re grippy and also do less damage to your knives. Rock choppers should avoid these as the boards are a bit too soft.
Make sure you avoid man made materials such as Paperstone, Richlite, glass, granite, ceramic—these will rapidly ruin your knives. Additionally stay away from teak, and bamboo—two natural materials that are very high in silica, which will drastically decrease how long your knife stays sharp. Don’t fall into the trap of buying anything but wood, plastic or rubber boards.
To learn more about cutting boards, visit our Definitive Guide to Cutting Boards.
If you’ve been using your knife’s edge to transfer foods and organize your cutting board, you’re not alone—many top chefs we’ve worked with do this too. Here’s the bad news, this is the easiest way to roll your knife’s edge, especially on those thinner knives.
Avoid this practice before it becomes tough to break the habit. We suggest picking up an inexpensive bench scraper for under $10. Space constrained? No problem, use the spine of your blade to transfer food.
We’ll put it this way: your dishwasher is a hurricane of scorching hot water and highly abrasive detergent. It’s a perfect storm that can chip, dull, and corrode your knives. Not to mention the high likelihood of pitting corrosion—a particularly nasty, localized form of corrosion. Even if your blade miraculously comes out of the dishwasher intact, the high temperatures and wet conditions will rapidly eat away at the epoxy that holds your handle together—translation: you’ll ruin your gorgeous knife, guaranteed.
Keep your knife away from the dishwasher at all costs, and clean it by hand only. PSA: the dishwasher voids most knife warranties.
The best place to store your knives is on a magnet. Wood or bamboo covered magnets are best, as they’re not as harsh on your knives as steel magnets: steel on steel is never ideal. Large wooden blocks are sub-optimal for several reasons: they’re difficult to clean, dull your knife edge, and take up unnecessary space.
Importantly, when placing your knife on or removing your knife off a magnet, remember to maintain spine contact. Place the knife on the magnet via the spine of the blade, and then slowly rotate the knife face onto the magnet. Reverse this when removing the knife. Avoid any contact between the cutting edge and the magnet—this will keep your edge sharper for longer and you won’t cut into the magnet.
Leather sheaths, as well as wooden and plastic sayas are great for transportation, but you should avoid them for long-term storage, unless your knife is 100% clean and dry. Any of these enclosures will retain moisture, and moisture is the enemy of steel, even if your knives are “stainless”. The result: minor patination, or serious corrosion for carbon blades. If you do use a sheath or saya, make sure to first apply a drop of food grade mineral oil to create a protective barrier between the steel and the sheath.
Each Artisan Revere knife comes with a custom-quality leather sheath included for storage and transport.
Safety. The friction of a leather saya, when constructed correctly, holds the knife in place snugly. Wood and plastic often don't.
Gentle. Leather is far gentler on knife edges. This is the top hidden issue with kydex and wood.
No pin to lose. This is the top complaint re: wooden sayas.
Tight fit for a broad array of knives. Our sayas are designed to fit a broader array of knives within a category. This is simply not possible with wood and kydex.
Sturdy and stable in all humidities. Leather doesn't warp or crack. Wood will warp or crack if moving between high and low moisture environments.
All knives will eventually dull as the steel abrades over time. Artisan Revere uses a 3rd generation high alloy particle metallurgy tool steel (which is 30x more expensive than generic knife steel) that will stay sharp much longer—but even our knives will eventually need a tune-up.
We suggest weekly ceramic rod honing for home cooks and daily for professional cooks. Cook’s Standard makes a quality, fairly priced ceramic rod. Remember to wipe your blade down after you’ve honed it. A good alternative is to hone your knife on the WorkSharp Elite Sharpening Solution's 3000 grit belt.
If your knife can no longer easily pierce a tomato with a slicing motion and minimal pressure, we recommend you run it for 5-10 passes per side on the WorkSharp, or retouch it on your whetstones. Once you’ve sharpened your knife, test it out on a tomato or pepper, or try to slice (not push) through a piece of paper on a diagonal. Your cuts should be smooth and effortless. Any kinks, and you’ve got to do some more sharpening in that area.
And there you have it. Eight easy steps to take care of your kitchen knife—brought to you by Artisan Revere.
Pro-tip: Invest in a quality kitchen knife that’s designed to last longer from the get-go. Check out the Artisan Revere Chef’s Knife, made with Elmax High Vanadium Super Steel, for an edge that stays sharp 2.31 times longer than other premium knives.
I ordered a chef’s knife that was out of stock so I knew there would be a delay, but the company kept me updated on everything that was going on with my knife (approximately when the steel would be there, when it got there, went into production, etc.) Customer service was above and beyond in every way. So is the knife. Incredibly sharp, great weight and balance, ergonomics are spot on. This is a fast and fun knife.
I love this chef’s knife. It is a very comfortable knife to use and wicked sharp. I was surprised by how lightweight the knife is, I’m used to heavier weight knives. I was a bit concerned until I used if for the first time. It’s so easy to use, the lightweight aspect is not an issue, it’s a benefit for bigger cutting and chopping tasks.
I own chef’s knives from Bloodroot Blades, Misen and Frederick Dick. All are great for their own reasons but my new Artisan Revere knife is fast becoming my favorite. I’ve used it a dozen or so times for various tasks and it makes even mundane work a pleasure. I’m interested to see the longevity of the sharpness. I’m used to honing with each use and using my work sharp belt sharpener every 4-5 months. So far the Artisan chef knife has held its edge longer than I am used to. I love this knife and look forward to continue to challenge it. You can’t go wrong buying this knife. PS I also own the petty knife. I bought that before the chef.
The Artisan Revere Chef's knife is the best overall knife I’ve ever worked with.
Mine came RAZOR sharp and it stays that way for an insanely long time. I just do a quick hone on my honing rod and occasionally pop it onto a 1,000 grit stone and it’s back to perfection.
The other thing I’ve noticed with my Artisan Revere knife is how unbelievably comfortable it is. All of my other knives are really rough on my hands. My Artisan Revere knife feels incredible and I’ve been cooking wayyyyy more because of it.
I love this knife. It was the best investment I’ve made in a long time.
First impression as soon as I got my package was wow. This company did a fantastic job on delivery and packaging of this knife. Second thing you notice is how light and well balanced the knife actually is. NOW for the actual performance of the knife. This is an honest review. I own over 70 plus fine western and Japanese knives ranging from brands and metals that you’re probably familiar with to ones that you probably wouldn’t have heard of. Wustof, henkels, global, Kramer, miyabi, kikuichi, sekai Takayuki, Mac, masakage. And metals such as zdp 189, 52100, Hap 40, aogami supers, white #2 you get the picture. Out of the box sharpness was just ok and that’s fine I’m usually not a fan of factory edges from a lot of knife makers. So after 2 days of use I sharpened my knife on the cerax 1000 and rika 5000 then Shapton 8000. And NOW THIS KNIFE IS SCARY SHARP. It took a scary sharp edge and now glides thru vegetable prep. I work in catering for over 14 years, so I know my way a knife. We do large amounts of prep and only time will tell how the edge holds up. Love the handle it’s super comfortable and appreciate the height of the knife. Also love how smooth the metal around the choil is. And the leather sheath he really nice. If you are an experienced knife sharpener which I’m sure if your buying this knife most of you are, pull the trigger you won’t be disappointed. I just recommend a good hand sharpening to unlock its true and full potential.
After using this knife regularly for a few years, other, more traditionally forged chef's knives feel heavy and clumsy by comparison. Plus the edge stays sharp with just honing for a surprisingly long time! Definitely glad I found this company.
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