Knives
Use and Care
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Prior to first use, clean the knife well with warm water and dish soap.
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For optimizing the sharpness, the blade has been ground to a very thin geometry, and thus is not suited for cutting hard objects like bones, frozen food or kernels, as this could lead to irrepairable damage on the cutting edge.
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Our knives are made for cutting food. Only use them for their intended purpose, and do not misuse them as a screwdriver or a can opener, as this would very likely damage the thin blade.
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Culilux knives are stainless, but not completely stain free. To avoid staining, hand wash the blade immediately after use under lukewarm water with a mild detergent and a non-scratch cloth and wipe it dry.
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Although the blade and the handle material G10 used in the recent production lots of our KOBE series are sufficiently corrosion resistant for surviving several dishwasher cycles (possibly with small rust stains), the Micarta used in the handle of the first versions of our KOBE series is not. In general, sharp kitchen knives have no place in a dishwasher.
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The blades are very sharp. When cleaning, always wipe from the back of the blade towards the edge.
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How enjoyable cutting is and how long your knives will stay sharp also depends on your cutting board. Cutting on hard surfaces will wear the cutting edge fast, so that the blade loses its sharpness. Thus cutting on materials like glass, stone, porcelain or steel is strongly discouraged.
When are knives dull?
With our knives, we have paid great attention to ensuring that they are delivered with an extremely sharp cutting edge. In addition, the cutting edge is designed in such a way that the sharpness can be kept at a very high level over a long period of time, by simply stropping it regularly.
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But even the best knives will eventually become blunt. When this will be the case depends not only on the knife's ability to stay sharp for a long time, but also on many other factors, such as frequency of use, the cutting technique, the material of the cutting board and what food is being cut. The feeling that a knife is dull is very subjective. Knife lovers often describe a knife as dull when it is no longer able to shave arm hair, whereas for the "normal user" this knife would still be super sharp. When is a knife objectively considered to be blunt?
A knife is generally considered blunt when it is no longer able to produce a clean cut through a tomato or piece of paper.
Tomato test: try to cut a tomato in a pulling motion with small pressure. If the knife can cut through the skin, it's still sharp.
Paper test: Hold a sheet of printer paper in one hand. Place edge of the knife on the edge of the paper and pull without pressure. If the paper can be cut cleanly without jerking, the knife is still sharp.
One way to objectively determine the sharpness of a blade is using a test device that measures the force needed to cut through a certified test medium.
The force is measured in grams. At values over 500, it will be impossible to cut a tomato and it is time to sharpen the knife.
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How to sharpen a knife?
How a knife needs to be sharpened strongly depends on the condition of the cutting edge:
1 If the edge is just rolled bent, the sharpness can be restored within seconds by stropping, on leather or a stack of newspapers.
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2 In case of a stronger wear of the cutting edge, it usually is rounded (1), and material has to be taken off both sides of the edge (2) to produce a pointed tip again (3). This requires considerably more work.
That's why prior to sharpening, the condition of the cutting edge needs to be checked. We recommend the following procedure:
1) Tomato or paper test
If the paper can be cut without jerking or a tomato be cut easily, the knife is still sharp.
2) If the test is failed, inspect the cutting edge. If the cutting edge still looks sharp and has a pointed edge, try leather or paper stropping and then do the tomato or paper test again. If stropping did not have the desired effect, the knife should first be stropped on the finest whetstone or honed on a sharpening steel and then leather or paper stropped. Run the test again.
3) If the sharpness cannot be restored by stropping or if the cutting edge appears rounded or damaged, the knife must be sharpened. There are various devices and methods for this.
Detailed instructions on how to maintain the sharpness of your knives for a long period of time, how to strop, hone, sharpen and care for them, can be found here.
