Although I'm not completely sure on this, but I believe that the knife was the first cooking tool ever created by man. Ever since the Stone Age, knives were used by man to gather and hunt for food, and later on used to prepare food when fire was discovered. Several centuries later, the knife is still one of the most common and most used tools everywhere you can find a kitchen. Everywhere you go, from homes to cafes and restaurants, you will find all sorts of knives being used for almost every food preparation and cooking task.

However, even if we know that the knife is a very important piece of equipment, the fact remains that still very few people know how to properly handle and care for a knife. A friend once jokingly explained that perhaps it's because knives don't have instruction manuals.

One of the things that really annoy me is watching people handle knives wrongly. But then, no one showed us how to use knives properly whe we were little. Our parents just told us that knives were dangerous and to keep away from them. Knives may not come with instruction manuals indeed, but I believe that people who use them regularly should at least take the effort to learn how to handle them correctly.

You have to learn how to correctly hold a knife. There are three basic ways to hold a knife, depending on the knife and what is being cut. For cutting against a board, the knife should usually be held with the blade between thumb and forefinger. The handle should be held with the other fingers. When you want to cut hanging meat, for example, the knife should be held like a dagger for proper leverage. When using a small knife to turn or peel, one or two fingers should grip the blade, with the othersthe rest around the handle.

Learn also how to care for your knives. Use a wooden board for chopping and cutting. Plastic boards are not as gentle on the edge of the knife as wooden boards. Get a board with the end-grain as a cutting surface, rather than side grain. Why? End-grain surfaces are the smoothest, least abrasive surface to cut against, so your knife's edge will last a longer time.

When storing knives after use, it's better to use paperboards or plastic sleeves. Clean the knife first after use, then dry before storing it away. Do not wash knives in a dishwasher, no matter how convenient it may seem. Remember that you have to protect the edge from other hard surfaces. It's more dangerous to use a dull knife than a sharp one, so always keep your knives as sharp as possible. To truly sharpen it, an abrasive surface that is harder than the knife must be used, such as a diamond honer. Of course, you can always use a whetstone, but it takes a lot of experience to be able to sharpen a knife to razor-like sharpness with it.

Azlan Irda is the co-founder of AfterKnife.com, which provides high-quality knives and supplies. Visit our website to get all the kershaw knives and supplies you need.

Azlan Irda is the co-founder of AfterKnife.com, which provides high-quality knives and supplies. Visit our website to get all the automatic knives and supplies you need.