When should I change my knife?
I already spoke to you in a previous post about knives, those without which nothing is possible (or almost) in the kitchen, so I'm going to come back to them a bit and try to answer the question "When should I change my knife?
15 K 4.7/5 (15 reviews)
Last modified on: November 2nd 2017
When should I change my knife?
You may remember how important it is to pay a lot of money for your knives, and to choose models with a stainless steel blade, a handle made of a composite material often called "plastic", etc. This is still true, and I dwell a little on the blade, which being made of steel, with time dulls, sharpens and must therefore be regularly sharpened. This is always true, and I dwell a little on the blade, which being steel, with time dulls, de-sharpens and must therefore be regularly sharpened.
The best way to do this is to use a sharpener, and in an elegant gesture (but unfortunately not easy to catch) you sharpen the blade again. To make a long story short, you should always have razor-sharp knives, it's always much more pleasant to cook with.
Let's come back to this knife sharpening, it turns out that in the gesture of sharpening, one naturally accentuates one's effort on the middle-lower part of the knife blade, and therefore it is there that the wear will be the fastest. This wear can be seen over time, it creates in the blade of the knife, very slowly, a small hollow, a slight curvature, which you can see on this photo (red arrow):
This hollow, if visible, is a sign that your knife is at the end of its life in "kitchen" mode: You will find it difficult to sharpen it, more and more, so it will cut less well, and will not be ideal for cooking.
To make a comparison, see these 2 knives side by side:
The top one is new, the bottom one has lived well, note the hollow of the blade at the bottom, and the nice rounding of the top one.
It's time to change the bottom one, of course you shouldn't throw it away, but use it for something else than cooking (garden, DIY, ?) or recycle it.
Well, it's not always easy, we are often attached to our tools, that we have well in hand, but it is necessary to take the step, the old knives even if they have a sentimental value, can become a brake to your good cooking.
To sum up: When the blade of your knife starts to get hollow, it is time to think about changing it.
The best way to do this is to use a sharpener, and in an elegant gesture (but unfortunately not easy to catch) you sharpen the blade again. To make a long story short, you should always have razor-sharp knives, it's always much more pleasant to cook with.
Let's come back to this knife sharpening, it turns out that in the gesture of sharpening, one naturally accentuates one's effort on the middle-lower part of the knife blade, and therefore it is there that the wear will be the fastest. This wear can be seen over time, it creates in the blade of the knife, very slowly, a small hollow, a slight curvature, which you can see on this photo (red arrow):
This hollow, if visible, is a sign that your knife is at the end of its life in "kitchen" mode: You will find it difficult to sharpen it, more and more, so it will cut less well, and will not be ideal for cooking.
To make a comparison, see these 2 knives side by side:
The top one is new, the bottom one has lived well, note the hollow of the blade at the bottom, and the nice rounding of the top one.
It's time to change the bottom one, of course you shouldn't throw it away, but use it for something else than cooking (garden, DIY, ?) or recycle it.
Well, it's not always easy, we are often attached to our tools, that we have well in hand, but it is necessary to take the step, the old knives even if they have a sentimental value, can become a brake to your good cooking.
To sum up: When the blade of your knife starts to get hollow, it is time to think about changing it.
Lasts posts
Oven height
When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.October 8th 20251,8495
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?September 3rd 20257,0553
The grease spray
As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...August 26th 20256,5375
Cake moulds
When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?August 25th 20256,6145
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...August 8th 20254,7305
Other pages you may also like
The gelling agent in a cream
If you start making a Bavarian cream for example, or any other that contains a gelling agent such as gelatin or agar-agar, you will sooner or later be confronted with the problem: How to properly incorporate this gelling agent into my cream? (and we will focus on gelatin).June 18th 202214 K4.9
Cleaning endives
If you buy your endives elsewhere than in supermarkets, and in this case the best is of course from a market gardener, he or she is the one who planted and harvested them, in this case you will have endives full of earth or sand, depending on where they were grown, which is normal and reassuring, we...March 24th 202026 K4.6
The return of the "Norman hole"
You maybe know the "trou normand", this old gastronomic custom typically French which consists in taking a (small) glass of calvados, generally between the last course and the dessert? It's something that seems a bit anachronistic nowadays, having a glass of an alcohol of more than 60° in the...December 18th 202114 K4.8
Brussels sprouts are very good
We are, as I write this, in the season of Brussels sprouts, a delicious vegetable that often suffers from a bad reputation, let's try to fix that.March 5th 202210 K4.7
The little trap of thick cream
When you need to add cream to a recipe, you might be wondering: thick (heavy) cream or liquid cream? In most cases, there's no big difference: you can use either. But there is one exception, and that's when the cream needs to be cooked, for a sauce for example, and here the difference between...December 13th 20247,0395
Post a comment or question
Follow this page (as 3 people already do)
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.