Please help with knives and knife maintenance

Get a 6 inch curved boning knife at any restaurant store. You can probably use it for 90% of your cutting and it costs $20. Buy a new one every year.

I got a black and decker electric knife sharpener for Christmas. I can’t speak for it being a maximum quality knife sharpener, but all of my knives are extremely sharp right now.

Get a GOOD steel and use it every time you use your knife. Also as others have said get a good wooden cutting board.

I have a bunch of shuns and wusthoffs. I know how to use stones to sharpen. I had a ken onion worksharp. I used to keep my blades scary sharp by honing them prior to any use, and spending a few hours a couple times a year to sharpen them all at once. (I am just a home cook, not a pro).

That being said, I used Knife Aid a few weeks ago and will use their services from here on out. Super quick and easy send out company that sharpens most any blade you can find. You can even request different degree edges on different knives.

That being said, your cutting surface, your honing, how you clean, and how you use your blade will dictate how sharp it stays.

Use end grain wood cutting boards, hone before each use, hand wash only immediately after use, and don’t sweep your board with the sharp edge of your blade. That is 80% of keeping a blade sharp. The other 20% is using the correct blade for the right job (don’t use a chefs knife as a cleaver and don’t try to cut through bones or cartilage with thin blades) and finding a way to keep your mother in law from cutting things on your granite counter tops.

Good luck. As a home cook, you should still need to give them an honest to god sharpening once or twice a year.

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and finding a way to keep your mother in law from cutting things on your granite counter tops.

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I physically winced when I read that

But pretty much everything jibbajabba said... End grain cutting board, regularly hone, wash promptly, don’t scrape the board (buy a bench scraper for that), use the right knife, etc

Also, just a personal preference... I have a 3 levels of knives in my kitchen:

(1) A cheap block from our wedding registry - used to do real quick things for kiddo’s breakfast or lunch or whatever. Not real prep work. Throw these in the dishwasher when they need to be cleaned. They were never really sharp to begin with but if they ever get terrible, I’ll just buy a new block

(2) A handful of good quality but not too pricey knives. I take care of these and use a whetstone myself to sharpen them. I use these for most of my every day cooking

(3) a couple of nice Japanese knives that I got as gifts from Coutelier (local knife shop here in Nola). I bring these in to be sharpened professionally once or twice a year. I use these when I know I have a lot of prep work or need my sharpest knives. Probably overkill, but I like them a lot

I know they sharpened them at the place in Perkins Rowe but they closed it

Not sure who else sharpens them around this area

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Not sure who else sharpens them around this area

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I’m pretty sure you can bring your knives to Williams Sonoma to get them sharpened. I’ve never done it though.

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Steels are used to keep a knife sharp

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A steel helps keep your edge aligned.

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and knife maintenance

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I guess you missed this part...

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What kind of cutting board are you using?

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Usually a plastic mat. (This might be my issue??)

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Unfortunately I am guilty of this; however, I flatten the blade on the board so as to not be scraping the edge across it. Basically I tilt it to about a 20 degree angle and then push the food so the board slides in the direction of the edge of the knife (meaning I push the dull side towards the food. IF you are one to use the knife in this way, this is probably a good technique to minimize your loss of edge

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I just flip my wrist or blade and slide things off with the top edge.

Me: a steel about ever third use, at the same angle I've sharpened with, and use a super fine Arkansas stone from time to time. Maybe very lightly 2-3 times a year and they still don't have any scratches from being sharpening. Just be slow and deliberate with same approx time spent on each side. Helps I live alone and don't try to cut through the board.

(eta: didn't down vote you)