Japanese Kitchen Knife Care

So you got a Japanese kitchen knife? Congrats! A Japanese kitchen knife makes cooking safer and way more fun, but it helps if you follow a few steps to take good care of your knife. This will help the knife to be as safe as possible and stay sharp longer. If you're ever unsure about any of these tips, feel free to contact us and we'll be happy to help.

Knife care comes down to three basic parts: how you use the knife, how you Keep it sharp, and how to care for it.

The Basics

This video teaches you all of the basic things you need to know. If you follow these instructions, your knife will be happy for years to come! If you want to get more serious about your cooking and taking extra-good care of your knife, check out our in-depth tips and tricks below.

How to Use it

Many folks don't know that your technique can make or break your knife's edge. Good technique creates less impact on the edge so it doesn't dull to quickly, while overly aggressive techniques can cause the edge to dull several times faster than it should. More sharpening means your run out of knife faster, so good technique will help your knife to last much longer.

Check out Knife Skills: How to Use Your Japanese Kitchen Knife Like a Pro to read about knife technique basics. If you prefer to watch a video, our Cut Like a Chef Class below teaches you everything you need to know about cutting with your knife. 

How to Keep it Sharp

Now that you're not making your knife dull too quickly, it's time to keep it sharp with a ceramic honing rod. Think of the honing rod as a toothbrush. The better and more often you brush your teeth, the less often you have to see the dentist. In this analogy, the dentist is the knife sharpener. More sharpening means less knife, remember?

Traditional steel or diamond rods can rough up the edge of your knife and remove excess metal, which is why we prefer ceramic. It's both smoother and harder, so it gently tunes up the imperfections in your edge to maintain it's sharpness. It won;t sharpen your knife, but it will help you sharpen less often. You can learn how to use one from this handy article, or watch this video below.

Maintain it

Lastly, any good knife requires (and deserves) a little care. Usually it's nothing fancy, just a good wash and dry by hand, and proper storage. Some Japanese knives are carbon steel, which can rust, so you'll want to wash and dry those ones right after using them.

Our article How to Care for Your New Knife details these steps, and a few others, which will help you get the most out of your new toy!

As always, please get in touch with us if you ever have questions. Happy cooking!

 Check out the rest of our knife knowledge articles here