I use both stainless and non-stainless knife steels in making my knives, but it shouldn’t be mis-understood that a stainless steel bladed knife can be mistreated. Stainless doesn’t mean stain free and care should still be taken when looking after these knives.

Therefore the following advice goes for both my stainless and non-stainless bladed knives.

Some Dos

• Keep your knife sharp, (see below). You will need more force to get a blunt knife through what you are cutting that could cause danger.

• Wash and dry your knife as soon after using it as practical. Particles of some foods left on the blade can cause staining.

• From time to time apply some oil to the handle of your knife, especially if it looks dry. I use boiled linseed or danish oil on wooden handles.

• If you are going to store your knife for a while give it a wipe with oil before putting it into it’s sheath. Either a simple olive oil or camellia oil.

Some Don’ts

• Don’t clean your knife with a dishwasher

• Don’t leave your knife soaking in water

• Ceramics, glass or slate used as a base for cutting things on will damage your knife as will metal even soft metal such as aluminium. Yes your blade is made of very hard steel, but it is delicate at the cutting edge. Wooden or plastic chopping boards only.

• Don’t ‘sweep’ chopped food across a board with your knife’s cutting edge; this will quickly dull the blade. Instead, get into the habit of using the spine of the knife for this.

Sharpening

This is a subject that seems to cause a great deal of stress and confusion. The good news is there is really no need - as long as you follow some simple guidelines.

There are many special tools to sharpen knives, some very useful, some not so useful, others still that will damage a good quality blade.

However, there is nothing to beat a sharpen using a good set of stones. Here is a video I made to explain. (Sorry, video unavailable)