re: So I bought some Cutco knives. How stupid am I?

quote:

---

A knife in a dishwasher is a dull knife.

---

learn something new every day.

quote:

---

How does hot water and drying heat dull a knife? Just curious.

quote:

---

It is the other utensils slamming in to the knife and bending the edge that is the issue. That is the way I understand it.

---

---

Janky's on point. It's the jostling they go through as the water jets bang them into the silverware basket and everything else in the silverware basket. A knife edge is microscopically fine and it needs to be straight to be sharp. It doesn't take much to fold the very cutting edge of the blade over and dull it, like in this captivating illustration.

Steeling the blade can straighten the edge back out, but banging around also microscopically (sometimes macroscopically) chips the edge or completely folds over the edge. Steeling can't fix those and sharpening or grinding and sharpening is eventually required to fix the damage the dishwasher does. Finally, every time the edge of the blade is bent over and you steel it back straight, that's working the steel back and forth. Just like a paperclip you bend over and over, the microscopic edge of your blade will work harden, fatigue, and break off where you're working it back and forth. Then, you're back to grinding a new edge back onto the knife.

Also, a lot of knife handles won't like the environment in a dishwasher. Others will be just fine.