Keep Your Knives Sharp
It may sound strange, but are you aware that dull knives cause most knife accidents in the kitchen? Keeping your kitchen knives sharp will help you avoid cuts while using kitchen knives.
Kitchen knives are a necessary tool in the kitchen. Most professional chefs are proud of their knives. They keep them sharpened to a razor’s edge and are their most important possession in the kitchens they work in.
But keeping knives sharp not only makes kitchen prep faster and cleaner, it also makes the chores safer too. Sharp knives tend to bite into whatever you’re cutting instead of bouncing off the surface. Bouncing off the surface of items you’re cutting is the fastest way to cut your hands, as your fingers and hands are the closest things to your knife blade. Even the skin of a tomato can offer enough resistance to cause a dull knife to bounce off it.
Invest in a Sharpening Steel
You should invest in at least a sharpening steel to keep your knives sharp. If you use the steel a lot, it may be some time before you’re forced to learn how to use a sharpening stone. Everyone has seen chefs on TV use steels. Please get in the habit of passing a knife over a steel several times every time before you use it. The steel doesn’t actually sharpen the blade. It straightens the sharpened edge of the blade, which is usually all the knife needs to regain a sharp cutting edge.
Simply turn the sharp edge of the knife downwards toward the hilt of the steel and pass the knife over each side of the steel to ensure both sides of your blade are straight. You’ll notice you have fewer nicks, cuts, and accidents in the kitchen by developing this habit.
