Just bought the wife a nice set of Kitchen knives for Christmas, and had heard the advise to hand wash them only, I suppose because the granular dishwasher detergent might dull them.
Truth or wives tale??????
I wonder if it's because of the pressure of the jet spray that may cause them to hit whatever else is in the same compartment in the silverware tray and cause a nick in the blade.
You should hand-wash them, but mostly because a thirty-minute immersion in hot water, followed by the heat of the drying cycle in the dishwasher, isn't going to do the (presumably) wooden handles any good. The detergent won't harm the blades, but they may get nicked if they bang into other utensils.
I always heard the reason for this advice is the damaging effect that the drying cycle's intense heat has on wood handles.....nothing to do with the blades.
I believe it's because dishwasher detergent is more caustic than the type you'd use for handwashing. In the long run, there really isn't enough difference to cause you to worry. It's likely you'll be old and grey (or greyer) before you'd consider them damaged.
Dishwasher detergents will eat the edges of good high-carbon steel leaving, over time, small "nicks" which will require a goodly amount of either machine grinding or elbow grease to put back the edge. About the only good advice my M-I-L ever gave me.
I've heard the same thing, not sure whether it's true or not.
I do know, however, that when I put my knives in the dishwasher (I have polymer handles on mine for this reason) they do seem to get rust spots and also lose their edge more frequently.... I do put them on the bottom rack, and I probably wash the ones I use most often 3 or more times a week. I've had them for 18 months.... and I run them over a
6000 grit whetstone when the seem dull....about every 6 months.I also don't use the sharpening steel, ever. If you use a steel use it very very lightly, never apply force.
If the handles are wood they will be destroyed over time - otherwise no real problem altho I do feel that the ones i put in dishwasher got duller faster - no real evidence - so i stopped putting them in. Besides it only takes a few seconds to wipe off and put back in drawer where you can find it! As opposed to looking in drawer, then dishwasher, then countertops etc. Just an efficiency consideration.
SWMBO got Henckels (sp?) when we got married and the instructions said not to put them in the DW because the handles would get damaged. The handles are some kind of plastic.
Assuming they have wood handles, the diswasher will dull and eventually remove the finish. Being too lazy to hand wash knives, I usually dip the handles in oil about once a year or so to renew the finish. Usually use BLO or Danish and one or two dippings + wipes usually renews the finish pretty well. If one gets scuffed a bit a light burnish with fine steel wool, before oiling, will clean things up.
RonB
Putting them in the dishwasher will void the warranty on almost all good knives. Speaking from personal experience, these knife companies can tell instantly by looking at them that they have been in a dishwasher. Their tech guys say that it damages the finish on the steel in addition to ruining the plastic handles.
This is really a wive's tale because my wife told me. When we put the steak knives in the DW, the silver-plate other utenliles get tarnished and generally show a chemical reaction to the presence of the knives. So we don't do it any more. Works for me. She doesn't tell me how to cut wood and I don't tell her how to load the DW.
Bill Leonhardt
Good knives should be hand washed, dried, and kept in a knife rack rather than in a drawer.
A knife rack insures that the sharp edges do not come in contact with each other.
If you don't have a rack, you now have a reason to build one.
As far as a dishwasher is concerned, ask yourself a question.
Would you put your drill bits, plane irons, files, or any other of your cutting tools in a dishwasher?
If the answer is "no", then why would you abuse your kitchen knives?
Lew
I always thought loading the dishwasher was getting the wife drunk.
The knives should be stored in the rack or block either on their side or with the blade pointing up in the slot.
*gasp!!*
If somebody were to put my W=FCsthofs in the dishwasher, I'd faint.
That just isn't done.
Then again... now I think about it...*thinking*..naaa.. just not done. It doesn't pass the 'gut-feeling' test.
r
That's like driving a new RS4 through a carwash!... even a touchless carwash... just not done.
Not while the wife is around!
(IIRC there was a rec.crafts.metalworking thread about using a dishwasher for a parts washer.)
-- Mark
Once worked for a company that used a standard home dishwasher to wash printed circuit boards after etching.
Don't remember what, if any, detergent was used.
Lew
That's like driving a new RS4 through a carwash!... even a touchless carwash... just not done.
Good lord. People spend all of their money buying high-end stuff to prove something. Then they spend all of their time taking extraordanary care of stuff by not using the high-end washing equipment that sets idle.
BTW, many of the good kitchen knives that we clean in the diswasher; and renew with oil every year or so, have been around most of our 40 year marriage.
It isn't low end stuff.
RonB
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