Knife Care & Maintenance: 7 Essential Habits to Keep Your Knives Performing Their Best

Whether you're unboxing a brand-new knife for the first time or still holding onto a hand-me-down workhorse that's been in the family for years, every knife deserves proper maintenance. Knife care isn't just about keeping the blade sharp; it's about preserving performance, feel, sharpness, and safety every time you prep a meal.

In this guide, we'll walk through  7 essential knife care habits that dramatically improve the longevity of your knives. These apply to everything from German stainless steel to high Rockwell Japanese carbon steel blades:

1. Washing
2. Wiping During Prep
3. Cutting Surface Selection
4. Honing / Stropping
5. Sharpening
6. Use & Don'ts to Protect the Edge
7. Safe Storage

Let's go step by step.

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Before a knife ever touches food, even when brand new out of the box, it should be washed by hand. A simple rinse won't remove potential factory oils, dust, or shipping residue, regardless of how shiny it looks!

The best washing method we've dialed in involves two things:

• A degreasing dish soap (Dawn is excellent for removing fats, oils, and protein residue)
• A dish brush (such as a Lodge cast iron brush or any soft-bristle alternative)

Now, keep in mind there are many ways to wash dishes and knives, but after a couple of decades of giving knives bubble baths, this is what we've found works best for any style of knife.

Why a brush instead of a sponge or washcloth? Because a sponge eventually brings your fingertips close to the cutting edge, exactly where you don't want them, and they get smelly. A brush provides distance and grip, allowing a strong scrub when needed without accidental slips. Yes, this blog is about knife care, but it's also about finger care!

How to wash your knives:

1. Rinse your knife with warm water
2. Wet the brush
3. Squirt a dab of soap directly onto the brush
4. Hold the knife firmly by the handle
5. Scrub each side until the blade is lathered up
6. Rinse and repeat if needed

If you accidentally left your knife out dirty for a while, with bits of food stuck to the side, and you need a little extra brush love, place the side of your knife handle along the edge of the sink or counter for more stability when scrubbing harder. Knife care section two will prevent this from happening!

Never put a knife in the dishwasher.

The detergent isn't the primary issue — it's the rattling around from the water jets and prolonged exposure to moisture. It can dull the edge, corrode hardware, rust carbon steel blades, and even spot stainless steel, waterlog wood, and oxidize POM and resin-based handles.

Don't soak knives in a sink full of water.

It's simply dangerous and unnecessary. If someone reaches in without looking, or you bury the knife with other dishes under a bunch of suds → sliced fingertip.

Rule of thumb:

Wash by hand, immediately dry, set aside safely until the next step of prep, or store and enjoy your meal.

Even with perfect knife care washing habits, a knife picks up residue the moment you begin slicing, dicing, and chopping. Onion juices, tomato seeds, avocado slime, citrus acid, meat protein, and fats can all cling to the blade's sharpened edge and sides, creating drag. Think of little foodie speed bumps that make your knife feel dull, even if it's wicked sharp.

For some carbon steel blades, even those with a nice patina, this residue can begin to rust if left sitting for only a few minutes.

A simple solution:

Keep a towel next to your board and wipe your blade every time you switch ingredients or pause prep to cook. This isn't a towel for wiping your board or countertop; it's for your knives — nothing else.

For stainless steel, wiping it regularly prevents sticky buildup. Feel free to use a damp rag or towel for stainless steel knives.

For carbon steel, it prevents food buildup, rust, and unwanted patina. It's best to keep the towel dry for carbon steel blades, but if it needs a little extra knife care love, give it a quick rinse, then wipe it dry.

Prep. Wipe. Repeat.

or

Prep. Rinse. Wipe. Repeat.

Fold your towel, taco shell the spine of the knife, pinch at the base of the blade, and pull to the tip. It's that simple. With a folded towel, the layers will protect your fingers, but ideally pinch right at the edge or just behind it, not past it. You do need to apply some towel pressure along the sharpened edge to remove the little speed bumps of food buildup.

The board beneath your knife is just as important as the blade itself.

A board that's too hard can damage the edge, forcing more frequent honing and sharpening, and in some cases, micro-chipping or fracturing the blade. Think of a cutting board as, just because you "can," doesn't mean you "should." There is no point in focusing on knife care habits if by the time you actually use the knife, you're causing harm.

The good news is that most softer Rockwell, Western-style, German knives can handle nearly any cutting board surface (except glass and metal). Yes, you may need to hone your blade more often and sharpen it more regularly, but you rarely have to worry about chipping or serious damage.

Best knife care cutting board surfaces for Japanese and higher Rockwell knives (62–66+):

• Hinoki / Japanese Cypress
• End Grain Larch Wood
• End Grain Black Walnut
• Synthetic Japanese "soft feel" boards like:
  • Hasegawa Pro PE: best for all-purpose prep.
  • Hasegawa Pro Soft: best for slicing and shallow tap and push chops with very high Rockwell knives.
  • Asahi Synthetic Rubber boards: same as the Pro Soft.

Great options for softer Western stainless or carbon steel knives (<60-61 Rockwell):

• All the above
• Maple
• High-Density PE Plastic Boards (the big white ones in restaurants)
• Most end-grain butcher blocks

Avoid entirely:

• Glass
• Titanium (yes, that's a thing now)
• Marble or stone (save those for serving fancy appetizers)
• Bamboo - sustainable, but too hard
• Acacia - nice looking, but wayyy too hard!

Your board acts as a suspension for your knife. The softer the board, the smoother the ride and the longer the edge lasts.

Most people think honing sharpens a knife, but it doesn't (most of the time).

Sharpening reshapes the edge geometry by grinding away and removing metal.

Honing revives the edge that was previously sharpened, kind of like a COMMAND+Z for knives.

As a knife is used, microscopic burrs bend out of alignment along the apex of the sharpened edge. Sometimes the burr can look like a wave curling over, about to crash; others look like jagged rock formations, and some resemble mountains out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Honing a blade straightens out the burr and, in some cases, removes bits of pincers along the way.

There are four common honing tools you should know about when considering knife care:

1. Steel honing rod: 
   • Great for softer Rockwell Western/German knives 
   • Tough and durable, won't break if dropped
   • Tons of inexpensive options available
   • Easy to use mid prep, even on a slightly dirty knife
2. Ceramic honing rod
   • Works for both German and Japanese knives 
   • Softer than steel rods and easier on knives
   • Various grits are available, some of which can slightly "sharpen" a knife, but it requires many passes for anything slightly significant to happen
   • Don't drop a ceramic rod, unless you pay a premium for a more durable version.
3. Diamond honing rod
   • Save these for softer steel knives that don't have the acute edge of a fine Japanese knife
   • Hones and sharpens since the diamond coating can remove steel.
   • Should only be used if you have a lot of experience honing knives because it's hard to keep the proper angle, which can lead to a knife that varies in sharpness along the edge
   • Best for commercial kitchens and butchers
4. Leather strop
   • Great for any knife
   • The most gentle honing option
   • Single and double-sided options available
     • Coarse side for honing and removing burrs
     • Fine side for fine-tuning and polishing the edge

For most users, a ceramic rod or leather strop before and after prep is plenty to keep the knife performing its best between sharpenings. For long prep sessions, a few passes can bring your blade back to par, especially before prepping knife nemesis like tomatoes and bell peppers.