Knife Care

Cleaning

Carbon Knives

- Never use a dishwasher for knives . They are hot and caustic.

- Use a sponge and soapy water. Use gentle pressure to release food and oils. Recommended cleaning pad (Scotch Brite Zero Scratch)

- Dry with a clean cloth and store.

Honing

- Honing is not sharpening. Honing restores the edge's apex brining it back to slicing a tomato like it should. Honing will prolong the need to sharpen and provide a safer effective use.

- I recommend watching some videos on honing a knife to find the one that works best for you.

- A smooth honing rod will remove the least amount of edge material and simply realign it. The smoother the better. No vertical ridges or low grit honing rods.

- Use very soft even passes until it slices paper well.

- Honing should be performed as frequent as needed. A high hardness blade (61 HRC +) will need less honing and sharpening.

- Carbon knives rust. If you don't like the charm of a cast iron pan and the maintenance of them, stay away from carbon knives!

- Some of my favorite knives are carbon. It's hard to resist their character and performance.

- Use the same cleaning methods with the addition of building a patina over time and or oiling the blade after use. Use food grade mineral oil for long term storage or if it's humid.

Sharpening

- Birdsong knives are sharpened to 17 degrees. It's an excellent balance of performance and edge toughness.

- Professional wet stone sharpening or diamond file guide sharpening is the best. Most sharpeners use speeds and methods on machines that are way to fast and will burn the apex of the edge. Something to think about. While they will get sharp, they will not stay sharp because the steels apex has been softened with heat from to much speed and no water cooling. A well sharpened edge can last a very long time with proper honing and cutting techniques.