Care

Caring for your Savernake Knife

The best way to look after your knife is to hone it every time you use it, thereby having to sharpen only occasionally. Our knives are made to be as hard as possible while still being able to take a good honing. Understanding the difference between honing and sharpening is the single most important thing you can learn (as regards caring for a knife). A good honing steel, such as our own range (with the ability to match the handle to your knife) is vital, and you should use it gently every time you cook, if possible – watch our video to find out how.

Sharpening vs honing

Honing requires a decent honing rod and serves to reshape the very edge of a blade after it becomes misaligned through frequent and inconsistent contact with a chopping board. A professional chef will do this every time they cook. Far from the fast-paced, slashing technique that we often see on television (we’re looking at you Mr Ramsey), this should be done slowly and methodically. The key is to maintain the same angle, or as close as is humanly possible, as you slide the blade’s edge along the rod, alternating sides as you do so. The perfect angle will be dictated by the angle of the initial bevel made by the maker of the knife, but generally speaking, a chef’s knife will be somewhere between 17-22 degrees. Regular honing will delay the need for sharpening, two terms which are often thought to mean the same thing. Sharpening will generally need to be done a couple of times a year, with a whetstone being the most effective method. This is a slightly more involved process with numerous online videos and tutorials showing how it’s done properly.

Wood Handle maintenance.

We never use varnish or other highly synthetic coatings on our handles – if nothing else, we’ve never found one that lasts more than a few months in a demanding kitchen before starting to chip and degrade. Instead, all of our handles are treated extensively with high-quality Danish Oil and then lightly buffed with wax before being posted. Over time the buffed wax layer will fade away (but gradually and more evenly than a varnish) and thereafter we recommend re-oiling your handles every month or so, or when they start to look like they would benefit from some love: Wash and dry your handle (and if you like you can gently sand all over with P600 sandpaper). Then apply – with a lint-free cloth – a good coating of Danish Oil. Adding terebene at around 10-20% will increase penetration and speed up drying time. Leave the handle for 5 minutes, wipe off the excess and leave for a further hour. Repeat once (or twice if the handle is thirsty) and then ideally leave somewhere warm for 24 hours, or at the very least until thoroughly dry to the touch. All wooden handles will benefit from continual use.

The dishwasher is a knife’s mortal enemy

The single most important thing to remember is NEVER to put it in the dishwasher. It will not enjoy being sprayed with salty detergent and being heated to 80ºc! In the event of a guest (or someone else trying to be helpful) putting your knife through the dishwasher, we offer a handle replacement and blade re-conditioning service for £50 + p&p. As the knives adapt to the heat and humidity of your kitchen, there may be a very slight expansion or contraction of the handle material. This will be most noticeable in a natural wood handle, less so in a stabilised handle and almost imperceptible with Richlite or similar materials. The expansion will be most noticeable around the area of the pins. If you like, you can use some 400 or 600 grit sandpaper to smooth the handle down.

A few words on engraving

Any engraving on the blade is a two-part process. The main cut removes around 1/20th of a millimetre of steel, with a secondary black finish applied as the top few microns of the steel are annealed. The deep engraving will last the lifetime of the knife, whereas the black will very, very slowly fade over time as you clean the blade, and hence we recommend not using too much elbow grease (or too abrasive a cleaning agent) on any engraving as you’ may hasten its demise.

How to sharpen your knife

The best way to look after your knife is to hone it every time you use it, thereby having to sharpen only occasionally. Our knives are made to be as hard as possible while still being able to take a good honing. Understanding the difference between honing and sharpening is the single most important thing you can learn (as regards caring for a knife). A good honing steel, such as our own range (with the ability to match the handle to your knife) is vital, and you should use it gently every time you cook, if possible – see here. We currently recommend HORL 3 Sharpeners, but if you’d like some other recommendations then do get in touch, or even if you just want some tips on how to use your HORL most effectively.

Repair service

We offer a complimentary sharpening and edge retention service once a year for the first 3 years after buying your new knife. Details are included with any purchase, but we will of course always be prepared to repair a damaged knife, be that a chipped edge from slamming through a pig carcass or from a helpful house guest putting your blade through the dreaded dishwasher.