How to Care For Your Japanese Knife
Caring For Your New Knives
One aspect of caring for your knives is maintaining the edge and when needed, sharpening the blade. But it's also important to be aware of how you're using your knives on a daily basis. The instructions below will guide you through the process of how to properly care and maintain your knives...
Cutting Surface and Cutting Technique
The cutting surface you use makes a big difference in keeping your knives sharp. A good cutting board will help retain a sharp edge for substantially longer. Wood boards are excellent choices. Tile, ceramic, marble, granite, or any kind of glass cutting boards are poor choices and are very hard on your knives.
Shop Best Cutting Board to Preserve Your Knife's Edge →
Seido knives are designed to be used in a smooth, slicing motion and never in a forceful, up-and-down “chopping” manner. The proper cutting motion is a "locomotive" motion, pushing the knife forward and down as you cut through the food, then pulling the knife up and back towards you (in order to position it for the next cut). This motion is also similar to cutting wood with a handsaw—forward and down, then back. The razor-sharp Japanese inspired Seido blade makes this practically effortless.
When you first begin using a Seido knife, go slowly and enjoy the precision cutting ability of your new kitchen cutlery. As you gain experience, you will be able to work more quickly. No matter what your experience level, be careful and always pay attention to where your fingers are in relation to the knife.
You can use your Seido Chef knives on meats and vegetables but not on bones. For very thick-skinned vegetables or heavier kitchen work, try to use our cleaver Knives. A chef cleaver knife is designed to handle more aggressive work in the kitchen, such as breaking down chickens, hacking through bone and preparing thick-skinned vegetables like butternut squash or melons.
Cleaning and Storage
As with any lifetime investment, it's important to take the best care possible in order to prolong the life of your knife. Seido recommends that you protect your investment by handwashing your blades with gentle dish soap. Don't use soaps with citrus extracts or bleach; they can promote corrosion. Rinse and towel dry immediately. Let the knives air dry for a few minutes before returning them to storage. Never leave your knife sitting in a sink full of soapy water. It does metals no good to be submerged in water for prolonged periods of time, and it's a danger to you when you reach in.
Micro-corrosion, which can result in tiny chips or missing pieces in your knife's cutting edge, can occur because moisture is left on the cutting edge. Moisture weakens the stainless steel and promotes micro-corrosion. If moisture is left on the cutting edge repeatedly, even normal use in the kitchen can result in small chips in the weakened sections of the edge. To guard against this, wash your knife immediately after use and dry it very thoroughly with an absorbent cloth or towel. Please take extra care to safely dry the sharp cutting edge of your Seido knives, keeping your fingers away from the edge.
After you have washed and dried your knives, we recommend you store them in our stainless steel block, roll-up knife case, or in-drawer tray or sheath. We do not recommend storing the knives unsheathed in a drawer, as this can be a potential hazard to the blades as well as your fingers.
Properly Care For Your Knife with this Universal Storage Block →
Honing and Sharpening
In order to maximize the life of the blade, regular honing is recommended. With heavy use knives can benefit from yearly sharpening. However, weekly honing although not necessary, is recommended to maintain the razor sharp edge and will extend the time between sharpening significantly.
Washing and Care Instructions
Stainless steel, although stain & rust resistant is not impervious to water. We strongly suggest you hand wash and wipe the blade completely dry after each use. Corrosion can occur if food or moisture is left to sit on the blade overnight. The Pakka wood handle, although it is strong, durable, moisture and heat resistant, it is not not impervious to water either. We recommend you gently wipe the handle under running water with a cloth and immediately dry with a towel but do not soak or leave it submerged in water.
Your Seido knife set is a quality investment piece and by taking the proper precautions you will enjoy many years of stress free service. Again, do not use the knife on hard objects and on surfaces such as tile, ceramic, marble, granite, or any kind of glass cutting boards.
Maintenance
Please remember, that you must re-sharpen the knife blade periodically. If you are using our honing rod/steel, sharpening stone or tungsten sharpener, please keep the correct blade angle while sharpening (8-15 degrees depending on your knife). If you feel the knife snagging a bit, the blade just needs a little stropping or honing, not re-sharpening.
