Should you put your knives in the dishwasher … we investigate
You’ve heard this before – is it true? Are you committing a knife crime each time you load up your dishwasher or does it actually make no difference at all? Read on to find out!
In short, you shouldn’t put knives in the dishwasher. Putting your knives in the dishwasher (and we mean knives you use for chopping, cutting, and paring rather than your ordinary bread and butter type knife) will blunt them and degrade the cutting edge. This is because whenever a steel-bladed knife comes into contact with anything equal to or harder than steel, such as glass, other steel implements or porcelain, it will knock against the cutting edge and dull the knife.
Other knife crimes to avoid are:
· Cutting directly on a marble bench, or a stone or glass chopping board - use wood instead.
· Keeping your knives in the cutlery drawer where they will knock against other knives – use a wooden knife block to maintain their sharpness.
· Washing your knives in the sink along with all other dishes and cutlery – not only can you cut yourself in the murky depths, your knives will knock against other things and become blunt.
If your knives are blunt, sharpening is easy. You can either:
· Take them to a professional knife sharpener
· Use a whetstone to restore an edge and get your knives really sharp
· Maintain them between sharpenings with a sharpening steel.
YouTube is your friend with the last two, and before long you will have impressive technique and really sharp knives that are a pleasure to use.
