Use & Care
The Art and Craft of Sharpening
Care & Use
Carbon Steel is for those who take pride in keeping their tools at peak performance through basic maintenance. Day to day, it is as simple as remembering to hand wash and dry after each use. Read on to learn more about helping your knife last a lifetime.
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- Always hand wash and hand dry – never put your knife in a dishwasher or leave in the sink.
- Don’t let it get dull – honing your knife while it still has an edge will prevent you from having to sharpen it often. We recommend a ceramic hone or a leather strop. When it is time to sharpen, we recommend hand sharpening on a waterstone or wet grinding – avoid any aggressive machine sharpening or any draw-through automatic devices. (Read more on our Sharpening Basics blog post)
- Protect the blade by avoiding lateral force movements (eg. do not use the tip of the blade to pry open a bottle, or twist the knife mid-cut)
- Always use a cutting board – wood, hard-rubber, or a soft plastic are all fine. Avoid cutting on plates, stone, or other hard materials.
- Keep your edge protected in a block or sheath whenever not in use. Almost any way you can protect your blade should be fine – wooden in-drawer or countertop blocks, soft-front wall magnets, individual sheaths. Avoid wall magnets with exposed metal and storing knives loose in a drawer which will lead to chipping and injury. (Shop the STEELPORT Knife Block).
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- Always keep your carbon steel knife clean and dry immediately after use.
- Oil your carbon steel blade regularly to maintain its luster and shine. A blade oil treatment is especially important before prolonged storage. Use a neutral food-safe oil, like the STEELPORT Blade Oil made of camellia seed. (Shop the STEELPORT Care Kit).
- Patina – unique color changes that occur with time and use on carbon steel blades – is natural and necessary, helping protect your blade and tell the stories of the meals it has prepared. (Read more in our Patina blog post).
- If rust (dark red/orange spots) does occur, it is important to remove it before pitting can begin.
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- Treat your handle like you would a wooden cutting board. Apply handle wax occasionally, especially if wood begins to look dry or dull. (Shop the STEELPORT Care Kit).
- Learn more about STEELPORT’s unique stabilized wood handles.