Knife wizardry

I probably own somewhere in the region of two hundred knives in all manners of sizes, states and styles, but use only three of them.

The one I pick up for 8 out of 10 kitchen tasks is my Hong Kong cold rolled steel stamped blade Chinese cook’s knife. Looks like a cleaver, and is often referred to as such, but it isn’t. It is THE knife everyone must own; kept sharp it will do everything for you, and most importantly do it with extreme confidence. This honey in the right hands and with a bit of practice will fillet a rockfish, segment a grapefruit, chop an onion and carve a roast without putting up any resistance.

I use a very long blade serrated slicer, mostly for bread really, and seeing as I’m totally obsessed with sandwiches this knife sees the light of day often enough. That one will come out daily, even if it’s to slice a piece for toast in the morning or split a ciabatta in half for my lunchtime BLT . She easily earns her place in my heart.

The third lady in my life is my yanagi ba sashimi knife. An awesome piece of craftsmanship which actually cuts precious little but does force me to dance around the kitchen doing sweeps and jabs while whistling that tune from Kill Bill, you know the one.

There are three key elements to looking after your blades, which in turn will look after you.

1.   Keep them sharp – this I cannot stress enough, I use a diamond steel for this critically important task. Mostly steels are touted as sharpening tools, but few actually only realign the edge that bends when contacting the cutting surface. Because my steel contains diamond dust, it's hard enough to sharpen a blade while accomplishing the final task of professional sharpening, which is polishing the blade to a fine point while realigning the edge.

2.   Store them properly – if you chuck them in a drawer with your wine opener, random keys and batteries they will get damaged. Hung in a rack or stuck to a magnetic strip on your kitchen wall, or if you must hide them away (why would you hide such beauty indeed?), wrap them in a knife roll or kitchen towels at least.

3.   Wash them correctly – hot water, soft cloth and light detergent ONLY. Then dry them immediately, yet again with another dry soft cloth. Finally, if you ever put them in the dishwasher I’m coming round your house and taking them off you. 


Knifey recipes
Grilled honey prawns with noodle salad