All About Knives

Although I’m not completely, 100% sure on this, but I personally think that the knife was the first cooking tool ever created by man. Ever since the Stone Age, man used knives to hunt and gather their food, and when he learned how to make fire, the knife was a major tool in food preparation as well. Several centuries later, the knife is still one of the most common and most used tools everywhere you can find a kitchen. Everywhere you go, from homes to cafes and restaurants, you will find all sorts of knives being used for almost every food preparation and cooking task.

But although we can all agree about the importance of this versatile tool, the fact remains that still very few people know how to properly handle and care for a knife. I’m almost willing to bet that a lot of knives in homes and establishments aren’t being handled and taken care of properly. A friend once jokingly told me that perhaps it’s because knives don’t come with an instruction manual. I’m almost inclined to agree with him.

One of my pet peeves is watching people use knives wrongly. The problem is that nobody taught us how to do it properly when we were just kids. All we knew at that time was that knives were dangerous and better kept away from us kids. Knives may not come with instruction manuals indeed, but I believe that people who use them regularly should at least take the effort to learn how to handle them correctly.

First, learn how to hold the knife properly. There are three basic ways to hold a knife, but it depends on the kind of knife and what is it going to be used for. When cutting against the board, a knife should be held with the blade between thumb and forefinger. Grip the handle with your other three fingers. When you want to cut hanging meat, for example, hold the knife in a dagger-like fashion to get proper leverage. And when turning or peeling with a small knife, it should be held with one or two fingers gripping the blade, the rest around the handle.

There are also several ways to properly care for your knives. Use a wooden board for chopping and cutting. Plastic boards require more cleaning, and they are not quite as gentle on the edge of a knife as wooden boards. It’s also better to use one where the cutting surface is end grain, rather than side grain. Why? End-grain surfaces are the smoothest, least abrasive surface to cut against, so your knife’s edge will last a longer time.

When storing knives after use, it’s better to use paperboards or plastic sleeves. Clean the knife first after use, then dry before storing it away. Never wash knives in a dishwasher, no matter how convenient it may seem. Remember that you have to protect the edge from other hard objects. To properly sharpen a knife, the best way is to use a knife sharpener with an abrasive, diamond surface. Of course, you can always use a whetstone, but it takes a lot of experience to be able to sharpen a knife to razor-like sharpness with it.

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