How to care for the knife
Taking care of good knives is essential to preserve the quality and sharpness of the steel. Many people are unsure of exactly this, so here are the tips that professional chefs make every day with their knives:
One of the worst ways, and unfortunately a fairly common way to store knives, is to throw them loosely in a drawer together with other equipment. Then the knife wall will collide with other equipment made of steel or other hard material, and the knife wall will become dull and damaged. Therefore, get your sharp and good knives on a magnetic strip or magnetic block. Knives should also be stored dry. Even though it is called stainless steel, the steel rusts with prolonged moisture. Therefore, be sure to dry the knives well before hanging them up.
NEVER put the knives in the dishwasher! This is the biggest and most common mistake most people make. Here are two factors that ruin your knives, high temperature and chemicals over a long period of time and the knife blade scrapes against other hard surfaces. High temperature makes the steel soft and this in turn causes the knife wall to reduce its sharpness. In addition to this, the wooden handle is exposed to high humidity and temperature over time, something everyone knows is not good for wood.
Always wash the knives in lukewarm water with a little soap, and rinse the handle. Always wipe both the handle and the blade with a towel or paper.
A diamond steel consists of a core material such as steel or porcelain. On the outside of this core material, there are diamond grains / dust of different sizes. The diamond steel is usually slightly coarser than ceramic steel and is therefore suitable for knives with a slightly coarser knife edge.
A ceramic steel is a finer steel in cast ceramics. As the surface is smoother than diamond steel, it is best used to maintain or "polish" the egg on all types of knives.
The difference between Japanese and European knives is both the hardness of the material and the angle of the edge. European knives are a little softer and have a thicker blade. The edge is ground at a 20-25 degree angle. Japanese knives are made of a harder material and can therefore be sharpened at a sharper angle, approx. 10-16 degrees. Because Japanese knives are harder, not all sharpening methods can be used to maintain them.
Our knives are Japanese and have a knife wall of 15 or 16 degrees.
Read more about sharpening and strengthening the knife here.