Stupid question time: wiping down a carbon blade

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esoo

esoo

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As the title says, it's a stupid question, but I over-think things sometimes

When using carbon blades, I usually just wash it if I have a long enough break in prep that it may be an issue. For example, I cut up onions, put the blade down, go grab and peel the carrots, then dice the carrots, put down the blade, go grab the celery, dice the celery, wash blade. That said, I did see a touch of color (orange) on my Fuji FM, so I think I need a bit better routine.

I know some people talk about wiping down the blade after every cut with the basis of that their being a folded towel sitting beside the board for the purpose. Somewhere I'd seen a comment about the towel being "damp".

So how often do you wipe down your blade? What is your routine?

I suspect the answers will be different from home vs pro and the type of carbon, but I just curious what people do.
 
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esoo said:
That said, I did see a touch of color on my Fuji FM, so I think I need a bit better routine.
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What’s wrong with color? Let it patina. People that talk about wiping their knives down after every cut are stupid, or they’re sushi chefs that need their knives to consistently sparkle for their customers.
 
Home cook. Overly cautious but depends on the blade. Some like the Kono FM are highly reactive. Kato's less so. I tend to prep food in one go. At the end I'll rinse blade carefully under cold water and then dry with a dish cloth. I'll wipe them down repeatedly until I see no further streaking, paying attention to the spine, choil and kanji (Kato chisels deep into the blade and that can retain moisture). Yes I'm borderline OCD, at least with my carbon knives
 
ian said:
What’s wrong with color? Let it patina. People that talk about wiping their knives down after every cut are stupid, or they’re sushi chefs that need their knives to consistently sparkle for their customers.
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Don't care about patina in fact it's encouraged. What freaks me out is corrosion and rust pitting
 
ian said:
What’s wrong with color? Let it patina. People that talk about wiping their knives down after every cut are stupid, or they’re sushi chefs that need their knives to consistently sparkle for their customers.
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I was seeing faint orange spots in the cladding - so that to me is an issue on the FM. On my Tojiro, they get rust and it's either a green or red ScotchBrite that takes care of it.
 
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Ah, when someone just says “color” I don’t think they mean rust,

Depends on the spots, I suppose, but yea iron cladding can be sensitive. I generally just do something like what @parbaked was suggesting.
 
I have one iron clad and with acidic foods, I'll wipe it off with a damp towel between ingredients and then wash with mild soap. Wipe dry. Wave it around in the air bc it scares my wife and Jon said he does it. Also to help dry.
 
I have this issue with my FM a lot; especially when I first got it or after a polish. For this reason I dug through a lot of old threads that I can no longer recall. The conclusion I came to (which could be incorrect) is that a bit of orange on the surface is harmless and in my experience is often removed through further usage (I’ve never noticed off colours or flavours as a result of this). It sounded like once pitting started action needed to be taken to remove the rust and neutralise to prevent further reaction? Again this is the best I could comprehend from reading earlier threads so please correct me if I’m wrong. If I go for a long stretch without polishing, even if the patina itself isn’t very visible, it does seem to be much more resistant to this surface rust and I can usually cook a slow dinner without having to wipe or rinse until I’m finished.
 
does dishwashing liquid count as mild soap, and do people go out of their way to use the red scotch brites for delicate glassware?
 
josemartinlopez said:
does dishwashing liquid count as mild soap, and do people go out of their way to use the red scotch brites for delicate glassware?
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At least where I am, for ScotchBrite
blue = no scratch
green = mild scratch
red = mild sandpaper

This is for the true 3M brand

So I wouldn't touch glass with red.

And I use standard dish soap - I consider it mild.
 
esoo said:
As the title says, it's a stupid question, but I over-think things sometimes

When using carbon blades, I usually just wash it if I have a long enough break in prep that it may be an issue. For example, I cut up onions, put the blade down, go grab and peel the carrots, then dice the carrots, put down the blade, go grab the celery, dice the celery, wash blade. That said, I did see a touch of color (orange) on my Fuji FM, so I think I need a bit better routine.

I know some people talk about wiping down the blade after every cut with the basis of that their being a folded towel sitting beside the board for the purpose. Somewhere I'd seen a comment about the towel being "damp".

So how often do you wipe down your blade? What is your routine?

I suspect the answers will be different from home vs pro and the type of carbon, but I just curious what people do.
Click to expand...

Not sure how helpful my answer is since I patinate my rust-nonresistant blades ahead of time and am also not a professional user, but to me it's just a matter of "don't leave it around wet" and not at all "wipe after every slice".

Also keep in mind the application. Sushi chefs are known to wipe down their blade with an ice-water-soaked towel, but that can also be a matter of mundane technical choice (e.g. when slicing rolls, one often wipes down the blade because sticky-rice is exactly that) and not something specific to carbon-steel knives.
 
Qapla' said:
Not sure how helpful my answer is since I patinate my rust-nonresistant blades ahead of time and am also not a professional user, but to me it's just a matter of "don't leave it around wet" and not at all "wipe after every slice".

Also keep in mind the application. Sushi chefs are known to wipe down their blade with an ice-water-soaked towel, but that can also be a matter of mundane technical choice (e.g. when slicing rolls, one often wipes down the blade because sticky-rice is exactly that) and not something specific to carbon-steel knives.
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I've done the pre-patina thing (mustard/ketchup/mayo on 52100 and hot vinegar on Swedish carbon) on monosteel, but on san-mai for some reason it just doesn't appeal to me.

I do get the "clean, cut, clean, cut" kind of idea to get perfect slices.
 
I have had a bit of experience with trying to prevent rust on some other expensive Carbon steel items with black or blue oxidized finishes which can get wet- Rifles.

For areas of actions and barrels which are under wood stocks on rifles that get carried outdoors and so are difficult to wipe down and oil, I have rubbed on a coating of Johnson's paste wax, the type that comes in a tin, used on hardwood floors, trim, furniture & etc. It wouldn't TASTE good on food though.

So I've buffed a thin coat of board butter (bees wax/mineral oil for cutting boards) onto the entire blades of several Carbon core/soft Iron clad J knives. It survives several rinses with warm water/drying on a towel cycles, seems to help with forgetting to rinse & wipe immediately on finishing cutting while cooking. Does wear away near the cutting edges, but that's usually on the beveled and polished areas where any minor rust is easy to remove without wrecking kurochi finishes.

Might not be necessary if you're religious about immediately rinsing and drying. But if I do get distracted, it's a bit of insurance.

http://www.theboardsmith.com/product/board-butter-2/
 
I usually prep all the ingredients to be cut in advance (wash, peel, etc) so the cutting session is almost uninterrupted. After I am done cutting wash the blade with soap, rinse, dry, rack.
If I forgot something, and need to break the cutting session for more than a few moment, I would rinse and dry the knife.

I do the same for stainless, carbon and anything in-between.
 
Use Scotch brite on good knives?

I used to give a uniform texture to T6 Aluminum instrument panels before we stenciled markings and clear coated them using the green Scotchbrite pads. It will scratch glass, Corian ceramic or mild steel easily.

I've ruined glass objects by trying to clean dried paint off them with the blue Scotchbrite, scratching it badly. It's an OK substitute for steel wool when stripping paint from wood in a water based stripper dip tank, wouldn't touch a good knife with it.

I have no idea about pink/red, never used them.

The ones I've used are plastic filaments with ceramic GRIT bonded to them. They are functionally equivalent to sandpapers. Proceed with caution.
 
Cutting onions or garlic I wipe down my blades with clear water and a clean rag. Otherwise its done after preparing food.

On some of my blades - mostly damast clad ones - blood is leaving really bad stains...

Patina is always welcome and I never had colouring of food with this blades.
 
I keep a small sponge and some liquid dish-washing detergent in the sink. When I'm done with the knife, I'll rinse it under a light stream of very hot water, tip pointing down, to dissolve fatty smears along the blade, then lather it up well, including the handle. I'll then use a dry dish-towel to carefully dry the entire knife, paying particular attention to the blade/handle joint. I don't want to see any trace of moisture at that joint, particularly with wooden handles. Once I'm done, I'll often put the clean knife aside for a while, to allow it to air-dry a bit more before I return the knife to its' protective sleeve. I virtually always check the edge before storage, and sometimes I'll give it a light touch-up with a ceramic honing rod, that way, they're always ready to go
 
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Usually I keep a towel that has been soaked and wrung out next to my board, and one dry towel always in my apron. Always wet towel dry towel with mine before I put them down for more than a few minutes. The only knife I really have to worry about is a Tanaka B2 thats super reactive. FWIW my whole roll is carbon aside from a stainless petty and an hd2 petty.
 
I rinse and wipe dry after I'm through with the blade. I also use a put one coating of Renaissance Wax on my iron clad knives.
 
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