Did you know?

What makes a kitchen knife get so dull? (Hey, everyone can’t be the life of the party!)
First we should explain why a knife cuts in the first place. If you look at the blade under a microscope, you’ll see that even non-serrated knives have tiny “teeth” along the cutting edge. As you use the knife, those teeth gradually curve and bend.
Chopping or slicing on hard surfaces (like countertops or china plates) causes the knife to dull faster, as does cutting frozen meat or hard vegetables like carrots.
Conscientious chefs keep a honing steel handy and draw the blade across the entire length of it several times on each side before they begin slicing. A honing steel won’t technically sharpen a knife, but keeps it from getting too dull too quickly. Dull knives can be sharpened by using a whet stone, but it’s best to let a professional handle the job.
By the way, more kitchen injuries are caused by dull knives than by sharp ones. We have to cut more aggressively and apply more pressure when using a dull blade, so when a flesh wound occurs, it’s usually deeper and more ragged than the clean, paper-cut-type slice of a sharp blade.