Hey guys, it's Jake with A.G. Russell
Knives - today we're talking about kitchen
knives. I want to go over some of the
do's and don'ts of kitchen knives and
help you learn how to take care of your
knives so that they last as long as possible.
The first thing to know about
kitchen knives is that each knife has a
limited lifespan on its edge and just
normal use in the kitchen will
eventually dull the knife. Just going
through food and hitting the cutting
board is gonna dull your knife just
slowly over time. But there are a few
things that will dull your knife ten
times faster than just normal use.
Your knife edge is made up of a thin sliver
of metal and contact with hard materials
can dull, chip, or malformed your knife
edge. Here's a quick example of an edge
that's been heavily abused. It is no
longer sharp. Which brings us to tip
# 1 - Do not expose your knife edge
to hard materials. So let me give you a
few examples of things to avoid. Do not
use your knife to cut on top of hard
surfaces such as ceramic or glass plates
as the thin edge of your knife comes
into contact with these hard surfaces
the edge is dulled. Another common mistake
is to cut right on top of the countertop
itself. You think to yourself, "You've
cleaned it recently, it should be good to
go." But this hard surface is really bad for
your knife. Your knife is not designed
for cutting ice nor is it really
designed for chopping, nor is it designed
for cutting frozen food. This will dull
and potentially chip your knife. Just like
ice in frozen food, bone is also a hard
material and is too hard for your knife.
Your knife is not designed to handle
bone, and especially do not chop bone, you run the risk of chipping your blade
which will be much harder to fix than a
dull blade.
This brings us to tip # 2 - Always
Use a Proper Cutting Board. Even the
flimsy green one is better than nothing.
The FDA has approved both wooden cutting
boards and plastic cutting boards.
Plastic is easier to sanitize and put
through the dishwasher, 
whereas wood has antibacterial
properties. To some degree wooden cutting
boards are still porous, you cannot run
it through the dishwasher. You do want to
wash them well, and you'll want to make
sure that you dry them well. Occasionally
you're gonna want to recondition your
wooden cutting board with a mineral oil
or other similar protected to help keep
bacteria and worming down into the wood.
Keep in mind that with just regular use
your cutting board is going to develop
scores and scrapes and cuts.
Bacteria likes to hide inside of these scores so
it's important to keep those cleaned out carefully.
This one is an example of a
cutting board that needs to be
resurfaced or replaced. If you're getting
these marks on your cutting board that's
good it shows you that it's a nice soft
material and it's not dulling your
blade too much. But it's bad in that you
are probably putting too much pressure
on your knife and it's cutting into the
board and dulling it. Last quick mini tip
when you're scraping food off of a
cutting board use the spine of you blade,
the back of your blade. This will help preserve
your edge. Thanks for watching part 1 of
How To Take Care of Your Kitchen Knives -
Using Your Knife. Stay tuned for part 2 -
How to Clean Your Kitchen Knife.
