Knives go in the dishwasher and get sharpened with a pull through sharpener
Knives go in the dishwasher and get sharpened with a pull through sharpener
My tools serve me, not the other way around. It's not worth the time and effort to wash by hand or sharpen on a whetstone. I don't need an expensive knife to cook at home. A pull through sharpener and honing steel are adequate. Get the right material and you don't have to worry about the metal in the dishwasher.
This is the second thread I've seen today with contentious talk about sharpening knives, and I have to ask both sides: do none of you live near a knife sharpening place? I pay EUR 5 per knife two to three times a year, and my knives are always sharp.
Dull knives are dangerous and make prep real chore.
That's a possibility. I've seen mobile sharpeners that have a trailer with their equipment in it and they also frequent farmers markets. There's also places where you can just mail your knives to and they'll send them back like they've just had some milk plus.
I can buy a set of cheap knives every 5-10 years. It will cost the same as buying an expensive knife set.
Just st make sure they aren't those serrated 400in1 knife blocks. Those never cut, they saw and tear your food.
What about serrated knives? Asking for a friend..
Only the bread knife.
Most people almost never sharpen their knives so from that standpoint using a pull through sharpener is already an improvement. Dishwasher I don't understand however. If I always put my kitchen knife into the diswasher after use I'd never be able to use it because it would be constantly in there. Instead I just quickly scrub it under hot water from the tap and dry it with a towel. Takes me 15 seconds and it's ready for next use and stays razor sharp for months.
If I always put my kitchen knife into the diswasher after use I’d never be able to use it because it would be constantly in there.
The solution is to have more than 1 knife. So while there is one in the dishwasher from yesterday, you have at least one more clean one that will go into the dishwasher tonight after you use it.
Instead I just quickly scrub it under hot water from the tap and dry it with a towel. Takes me 15 seconds and it’s ready for next use and stays razor sharp for months.
It takes more than 15 seconds for hot water to come out of my kitchen facet. My dishwashered knives are still plenty sharp to cut through the fresh produce that is their primary use. After about 10 or 15 years the handle may may crack and deteriorate from dishwasher usage. I'll buy another knife. A decent knife isn't that expensive.
I have a dishwasher that has silicone inserts for knifes. But i also hand sharpen my knifes a lot, someone i'd rather sharpen a knife for 15 minutes than cleaning it from hand.
My tools serve me, not the other way around
Legit take. Why buy extremely expensive knife just to babysit it? Just get an okay knife and sharpen it once in a while whether by whetstone or grinder, and knife doesn't need to be razor sharp to function nicely.
Unless OP is getting a few thousand dollar japanese hand-crafted chef knife and then run it with dish washer and knife grinder, then i'd say it's sensible.
Another one is cast iron pan, i've seen tons of people teaching others to use it and then proceed to explain it in such convoluted way that's basically babying the thing. It's indestructible, guys, you don't need to season it everytime before and after use.
I have some expensive ass knifes and i started to realise that i don't use them too often just because they were expensive. My favourite knife is a victorinox knife that i sniped for 10 dollars. Second to that is a spiderco for 23 dollars. Both really good knifes
Every kitchen should have a workhorse set of Victorinox, imo. Get a fancy knife to compliment that, if you like.
knife doesn’t need to be razor sharp to function nicely
No, but if it's not razor sharp after sharpening then it wasn't sharpened properly and it'll be dull again in a week. Properly apexed edge with the burr removed stays razor sharp for months. Improperly sharpened knife cuts well for a week because you're cutting with the burr but after it bends you've got to resharpen it again.
That's fine. They're your knives and it's your kitchen.
If you handwash them, you won't need to sharpen them as often. And if you get used to having sharp knives, you'll stop using that sharpener pretty quickly.
It's like you're saying "I don't need to change the oil in my car. I just spray some WD40 in there every few days until it stops making noise. My car serves me, not the other way around."
That's how you sound. That's why so mamy people are giving you grief.
Dude his post is perfect for this sub.
Nah, it's more like saying I take it to a shop to get the oil changed or fill it up with the cheap gasoline because the point is to get me from point a to point b and I deal with its upkeep. It's not a hobby, it's a tool. But people hear that and want to seem superior, is how I see it, so they tell me the Right way as if I don't know. I just don't agree.
Then the correct comparison would be to say you take your knives to get professionally sharpened instead of doing it yourself.
The way a pull thru sharpener works is completely different from a diamond / whetstone. It's a scraper, not grinder. It's like the mechanic doing an oil change with rapeseed oil.
Not seeing how a dishwasher dulls knives, unless you're banging them around.
I've heard this for decades, I wash my steak knives all the time, the dishwasher doesn't affect their sharpness at all (and they're proper sharp knives, not those bullshit serrated things).
Water corrodes the edge. Razors stay sharp for much longer as well if you store them in mineral oil after use rather than just put it onto the shelve while still wet.
As long as you're not one of those weirdos that insist pull through sharpeners are just as good as properly sharpening it.
Most people don't need a perfectly sharp knife. Are they nice to have? Absolutely. But as long as you don't let them get dangerously dull, who cares.
I like your take.
You're a monster.
Thank you 😊
Our household has amazing sets of Henckels knives that are in perfect condition from careful handwashing, professional sharpening....and because they almost never get used. We also have a few relatively inexpensive knives that get use all the time because they go in the dishwasher after use.
Huh. I expected to wander in here and see people confused about why this is on unpopularopinion. I'm apparently a repulsive philistine. A meteorite-forged knife sharpened on daylight is a joy to use, but you can also just buy cheap stamped knives, do basic maintenance, and spend your mental capital elsewhere if you want.
Mine don't go through the dishwasher only because the plastic in the handles would get fucked up. Otherwise they're stainless, how does a dishwasher harm the stainless in my knives but not my stainless silverware, stainless bowls, stainless utensils, stainless dishwasher?
And I use an electric sharpener. I ain't wasting time with a stone - I did plenty of that 45 years ago. Tech has moved along. Does anyone think Wustoff sharpens their knives by hand?
You know there's a million different alloys that are all "stainless steel" right?
As far as some more specifics, nothing else you made is meant to hold a sharp edge, so they aren't made of heat treated tool steel. Making a knife is a balance between having softer metal that dulls more quickly, vs harder metal that chips or cracks more easily.
Another feature you'll notice on your stainless steel knives is a sharp edge, which is much more delicate than the blunt edges on everything else you listed. The thinness of the edge, combined with the metal being hardened so it can retain an edge, make it so you're reasonably likely to chip the edges of many nicer (better heat treated) knives due to stuff knocking around in the dishwasher. Also you're somewhat likely to damage the coating of the dishwasher racks with the sharp edges.
Also, probably not Wusthof, but some high end knives are, in fact, hand sharpened even in factory settings still. It doesn't take very long on a wheel or belt really, though if you don't count that as hand sharpening then yeah that's a definitions disagreement.
No shit, again, tell me how the dishwasher harms my stainless knives? And I could tell you the exact stainless my knives are, as well as my cookware, and my bowls. I've done TONS of research on my kitchen gear. It's also supposedly bad to wash my stainless cookware too, hasn't hurt it yet - the dishwasher runs between 1 and 3 times a day, we cook so much.
I've tested multiple brands (with different stainless, the big difference is the nickel percentage) and none have been affected - they don't even stain.
I've washed my steak knives from the same set that I've had for 10 years now - you can't tell the difference, they get sharpened about 1/4 as often as my chef's knife, because I use it all the time.
Seriously, it's stainless fucking steel, that was forged and tempered at temperatures far beyond the 200 degrees of a dishwasher. What is it exactly about the dishwasher that supposedly fucks up my knives that aren't fucked up from the dishwasher? (And I use cheap-as powder detergent, the cheapest I can find, and my shit comes out clean).
Now I wouldn't run a carbon steel knife through the dishwasher, because it would have a bad reaction with the detergent, and it would rust which I'd then have to cleanup.
I can't say whether this is unpopular broadly, but it sure is unpopular with me.
I agree they aren't needed. But oh man. Once you buy a really nice (often expensive) set of culinary knives, you realize what the hubub is about. They're wonderful.
I had a girlfriend that filleted the tip of her finger off using one of my knives. As I drove her to the hospital, she tried to say my knives were way too sharp. I told her that was on her.
My girlfriend did the exact same thing. That knife had literally just came off the stone. Sliced right thru the tip of her finger including the nail.
When it comes to the quality of the knife itself I think you'll see diminishing returns after you pay more than 70 euros for one. The jump from a dollar store knife to a Victorinox is huge but from Victorinox to a japanese hand made one is much less different.
I use knives I have pilfered from various places I have worked at and they are around 10 - 40 years old, some are really good knives though. I have ever only used 2 pull through sharpeners and the current one is maybe 15 years old. I have also only washed my knives in a dishwasher as long as I have had access to one, so like 20 years, and there has been no noticeable difference.
I also have a cast iron pan that's at least 40 years old, I commonly wash it in the dishwasher and it's indestructible. If it gets some rust on it I just scrape it off with steel wool and add a little oil. It works as well as it did 40 years ago. People are way too anal about kitchen tools.
I'm pretty sure the idea that a dishwasher can ruin a knife or a cast iron pan is a myth that too many people have bought into.
Maybe you got lucky or I got unlucky, but cast iron plus dishwasher equals having to reseason from scratch for me
That's just adding a bit of oil and spreading it over the surface with a piece of paper, takes like 10 seconds. I have done that after washing it for 40 years and it works as well as anything I found people saying online.
Some insane people insist on sticking it in an oven with bacon grease or something but as far as I'm concerned it doesn't do anything more than just adding a bit of oil and leaving it alone. I did that once and felt completely ridiculous for wasting so much time for the same result.
Oh look honey the Neanderthals are on the internet now
You're just jealous of our prominent brows.
Lmao
Hahahahah... Well at least we're not "monsters"!
I wash mine by hand and sharpen them afterwards, when I had the feeling they get dull. Sometimes my GF puts them into the dishwasher for some reason. I don’t care, really. Still sharpen them before putting them back in the block.
But you do you buddy. Show them kitchen tools who’s boss!
I initially assumed this was unpopular because "just wipe the knives off..." and "why sharpen them at all?". Boy am I surprised.
Damn, taking the meme post and running with it! That's a serious pet peeve lol
The detergent in the dishwasher is extremely corrosive. Most kinds of metal can't stand it, and you see the general result (rust) after just one try. So, if your knives are OK with it once, they are OK with it all times.
But: they are going to loose sharpness much quicker. You will have to sharpen them more often. I guess you are OK with that, too.
Nonsense. I've put all my various knives in the dishwasher for years and there is zero visible rust on them. Every few months i use a sharpener on them and they're super sharp again.
How does a dishwasher dull a knife?
I run my steak knives through it all the time, they get sharpened 1/4 as often (or less, like 2x a year) as my hand washed chef's knife, which could be sharpened every week (it's a very good Henckels set).
It bounces it around from the jets of water.
There’s also abrasive in the detergent IIRC, but idk if that would make any appreciable difference.
Placebo problems created by hyperfocusing on one thing (knife sharpness) leading to bullshit flying around
Translation: I'm wasteful
Not with my time.
I generally touch up my knives every few weeks. It takes me about 45 seconds per knife on a whetstone and a strop. Add another 30 seconds if you want for grabbing the whetstone and splashing it with water first if you want.