When cleaning knives and putting them in a drying rack, should the sharp end point upwards or downwards into the drying rack?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “knife drying rack“
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When cleaning knives and putting them in a drying rack, should the sharp end point upwards or downwards into the drying rack?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “knife drying rack“
About Luna
Don’t leave them on a rack. Edge or point up protects the edge but it’s an accident waiting to happen. Edge or point down damages the knife.
Knives should be hand washed and immediately wiped dry and returned to the block, magnetic strip, or a sheathe or edge guard. No exceptions. Moisture should not be sitting on any knife, even stainless, and knives should not be soaked. Water going into the handle gaps is not good.
Wanbasion Black Stainless Steel Knife Set, Sharp Kitchen Knife
Okay, Chef Asshole is here (hiya!), and it’s hard truth time. You do niether, because as intelligent human beings, we can aspire to have clean sharp knives without putting our children or ourselves at risk.
Here’s the mind-blowing “hack” (oh I crack myself up). Take the 1.5 seconds of effort it requires to towel dry your knives, immediately after washing, and set them directly into safe storage. It’s easy! …
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Neither. Coming from this as a knifemaker and someone who worked in the restaurant industry for over a decade years ago. NEVER put a blade point up, that is serious injury waiting to happen. A slip, an indavertant grab or anything else could result in serious injury. Even death depending on where the knife point hits. If you end up nicking your brachial artery you could very easily bleed to death without immediate care.
Point down damages the tip of the knife. It will over time round the blade point out and wear the edge un-nessarily.
Cleaning your knives with a mild soap, rislnse well and hand dry with a soft towel. While washing never have the edge towards your hand, same with drying. Be aware of the edge location and your fingers and other people at all times. NEVER dishwasher a knife, it is horrible for the life of your blade. If it is a carbon steel or stainless blade dry is good. A thin coating of mineral oil can help prevent rusting in storage in a knife block. This is especially true for carbon steel blades.
Any other questions feel free to ask, I’m not going into details of knife materials, steels, handle material care or anything else. Just a basic answer and how every customer who owns a knife of mine is told to care for them.
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Depends on how much you like:
Your fingers
Your Knives.
If you like your fingers, but don’t care much about your knives, you put them in the drying rack point side down.
If you like your knives, you don’t put them in the drying rack at all, you wash them right after each use and dry them with a cloth immediately then put them straight into the block.
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Wipe them dry immediately and store in a knife block, or magnetic strip. Never anywher they can rattle against other metal items. I have a drying towel next to my sink for just this purpose.
If you insist on drip drying them, point down for safety.
Victorinox Fibrox Pro Knife, 8-Inch Chef’s FFP, 8 Inch, Black
The real answer is that you just simply shouldn’t store knives in a drying rack!
If you store them point-down, you risk damaging the blade from contact with the rack or other knives.
If you store them point-up, you risk injury from the exposed blade.
Hand dry your knives with a towel and put them away immediately. Everything else can go in the rack.
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In a drying rack, you have options based on personal preference, but in a dishwasher, point always goes up, every single time. It’s local health department regulations for commercial kitchens that all utensils washed in a dishwasher be placed with the service side up, which for a knife, is the blade. The reason for this is that no debris left in the bottom of the basket after washing would come in contact with the portion of the utensil that touches food.
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Knives should be hand washed dried and put away immediately after use never placed in a sink or drainer, I have scars from reaching over the sink at my grandmother where she placed her knives sharp side up and a scar that I should place on myself for drinking water out of the faucet I turned the water on let it cool a minute and stuck my head under the faucet, meeting a large fork the entered the left side of my face right by my left eye, I must have been really thirsty because I was moving so fast to get at the water that it fork went the entire length almost two inches under the skin and across my skull right at my temple. Hurt like hell at the time, needles to say I haven’t done that a second time, coincidentally, and ironically, I am now blind in my left eye not from any of that I had a stroke, I didn’t know you could lose your eyesight from a stroke either.
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When cleaning knives and putting them in a drying rack, should the sharp end point upwards or downwards into the drying rack?
Hi,
I put them point down.
The idea being I don’t want them sticking up where I can stab myself. Or worse a family member could stab or cut themselves.
Apparently “COMMON SENSE” is not common.
Jim Y
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10,000 chefs just cried out in anguish at the thought of placing a knife in a drying rack!
Knives are precious tools! Each has a personality of its own. If you use a knife enough, you will “know” that knife. You will learn signs of when it needs to be honed, sharpened, or reworked.
As soon as I’m finished using a knife, it is walked to the sink where it is cleaned. Then, it is hand dried. Then, I use a few strokes on a steel to finish the edge before placing it right back where it came from-the knife block.
About once each month, I bring out my sharpening kit and rework each blade back to fitness.
I lost the tip of my left ring finger to lazy knife care when a dull knife slipped off an onion and sent me to Urgent Care on my birthday.
Respect the blade!
I use this kit:
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Never, ever put your knives, or anything else with a sharp point, in the drying rack point up. To do so is to court disaster! Several years ago a cousin of mine did exactly that. When she was finished with the dishes she decided to wipe down her cabinet fronts, and stepped up into a chair to reach them. She lost her balance, flailed her arms around to keep from falling, and slammed her right hand down onto the rack full of knives. Her hand was so badly damaged that the surgeons were barely able to save it, and she never regained use of it. Always keep the points and edges of your sharp utensils covered when you’re not actually using them. I don’t even put my knives in the drying rack at all. Instead, I very carefully dry them with a soft towel, staying on the back of the knife at all times, and immediately put them in the block. And this is the only kind of block I’ll use:
Note that it has no slots. It’s actually just a wooden box filled with very slender nylon rods. You can stick your knives in it in whatever position suits you. It won’t damage the knives and the knives won’t damage it. The perfect knife block.
Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops SWA24S 7.1in S.S. Folding Knife with 3.1in
Sharp knifes should always be placed in the drying rack blade down – and in a location where their handles are clearly visible.
If you cannot put them in blade down, they should be placed a the edge, handle facing towards the kitchen (not wall) with their blades turned inwards so they’re resting against the rack. Again, they should be located so the handles can clearly be seen.
And whilst we’re on the subject of knives – they should NEVER be placed in the water if you’re not literally washing them. Always keep them on the back of the sink, blade placed towards the edge of the sink UNLESS there is a windowsill. If there is a windowsill, put them up there (blades facing towards the window).
Always made sure the blades are facing away from someone about to pick them up if possible and that the handles are clearly visible.
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Neither.
Wash them immediately after use, dry them with a towel immediately after wash, and put them away safely in a knife block or on a magnetic strip.
Leaving them lying around dirty or wet will make them dull faster. So if you don’t particularly enjoy sharpening your knives a lot, or using dull knives, taking care to keep them clean and dry is going to make your life easier.
Also, it greatly reduces the risk of cutting yourself when reaching for something in the drying rack.
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Bosch dishwashers come with an instruction book that advises all cutlery to be placed “points down”. So the points of knives and forks down, the handles of spoons and teaspoons down. This is not only sensible as regards safety, but maintains good separation of knives and forks since the points usually provide some form of anchor and allows the large surface area of spoons to move around under pressure of the jets allowing a better cleaning.
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Logic says that if you put the pointed end of a knife upwards in a drying rack then sooner or later you will stab or cut yourself with one. Best put the pointy end downwards.
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Points and blades should face away from you.
That reduces the chance of being poked or cut when reaching for the knife.
It’s all about being safe and respecting the tools.
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When you clean a knife, you wipe it dry. End of story.
Background: If it is made of carbon steel, you invite rust if you don’t. If it is not, it is still a VERY sharp object that should not lie around.
CJRB CUTLERY Folding Knife Crag
I’m a lazy bachelor but as I wash up I always immediately dry and put away the sharp knives I’ve used, rather than leaving them in the rack with the other stuff. It takes about three seconds each.
By the way, everything else I suggest you put business-end up in the rack, to avoid the crud and bacteria that are bound to accumulate in the damp at the bottom.
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This is obvious commonsense, of course the sharp end should be pointing up, how else are you going to remove it with the palm of your hand?
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Drying rack, point down.
But in a dishwasher…. up. RTFM. If you parent so badly that your child hurts themselves that way, Social Services will be there sooner or later.
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Downwards, always.
If you look at a knife edge on, the blade is barely visible. You don’t want to cram your hand into the drying rack and find it that way.
Just an FYI, good chefs knives should never be shoved in a drying rack to collide with other blades.
They should be hand washed, dried and replaced in their block or what ever safe holding device you use.
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Original Question – When cleaning knives and putting them in a drying rack, should the sharp end point upwards or downwards into the drying rack?
Oh Good Gawd. Is this even a question that needs to be asked?
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If it’s my decent kitchen knives then they just get a rinse or sanitising wipe and then straight into their storage rack.
If it’s just table knives then they don’t have points nor are they that sharp, so they go in the rack handle downwards. The only exception is steak knives which go point down.
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We have a nice set of Henkel knives from when we got married almost 20 yrs ago.
We hand wash them, dry with a towel, and leave them in front of the rack to air dry (to ensure no water left on knife.) We’d then put them in the block, blade pointing DOWN.
Since we usually use one or 2 at a time, it doesn’t take much room for them to air dry in front of the rack.
In almost 20 yrs, we never got mold or rust on our knives.
We moved to an apt recently, paid for by hubby’s company. They paid for the apt to be furnished with all the basics. The knives they gave us were all rusted. The previous people who used them didn’t dry them properly before putting them in the block. I never realized knives would turned so disgusting without proper care. (The mgmt company replaced the knives.)
Take care of your knives and they will take care of you.
215-964-4500
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Point & cutting edge down. Always. Unless you enjoy bleeding. Best plan is just to wash them, dry them with a kitchen towel, and put them away properly.
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Never, ever put a knife anywhere with its point up or with the sharpend up. Period. Treat knives with the respect they deserve: they are potential murder weapons after all.
With knives it’s a good habit to not store them out of place longer than necessary. They have no place in a drying rack at all. You wash them, dry them immediately and safely store them away again.
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I put them point up.
I suppose it’s theoretically possible to slam your hand on them and cut yourself, but I’ve never done it, don’t know anyone who has ever done it, and don’t know anyone who knows anyone who has ever done it. In fact, I’ve never even heard of it.
It’s about as likely as cutting your hand by picking up a knife. I suppose it’s possible somehow, but if you’re paying any attention at all, you won’t hurt yourself.
No doubt there will be someone on Quora who has actually heard of someone getting injured because a knife was point up, but there are also people who fell of porches. Does that mean you should never be on a porch? There are also people who tripped on the footstool they had their feet on. Does that mean you should never have footstools anywhere?
A million to one chance isn’t worth worrying about.
EDIT – the answer is for smaller knives and the drying rack is on the counter next to the wall. I’m thinking of my kitchen as it’s been everywhere I’ve lived but if the drying rack is somewhere else, who knows. Also, I don’t put chef’s knives or larger knives there. I dry them and put them away.
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Point down, obviously. Even if you don’t fall into the dishwasher, there is a high risk of cutting yourself by reaching in for any reason.
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If the knife is sharp, never put it in a dishwasher or drying rack. Clean, dry and put away after use. A dishwasher will dull a knife and a dish rack is not a safe place to store a knife. Though if you use a dishrack for some reason, but point down, you are less likely to injure yourself or someone else.
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Always put the blades pointing up!
It helps to keep them sharp, and to not dull the blade against the surface of the knife block.
I disagree with another person who answered this question. Sure, it may be more likely for a pet or a child to cut themselves (debatable.) So, in that case, lock your knives in a safe when not using them. Sheesh.
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Upward. You don’t water to remain in contact with the cutting edge. The cutting edge is the business end of your knife. Prolonged exposure to moisture corrodes the cutting edge. If the knife blade is high in chromium like your diving knives, it’s not a problem, but high carbon blades needs minimum water exposure and should be oil coated if placed in storage.
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for cooking knives
Sharp end always down – so you can’t stab yourself
sharp edge always away from you arm movement – so you can’t cut yourself to the bone
but even better. Wash knife, dry it and put it away – in my case on a magnetic wall rack
if in a dishwasher then lengthways blade downwards – no nasty accidents from not paying attention
For dining knives (no, not steak knives or the like) always handle down so water does not drain onto the knife end and leave a nasty mark.
in a dishwasher however you like – i put point down as you can then just grab the handful of cutlery
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A lot of people are saying that you should put them point down for safety reasons. I agree with that, but I want to add another reason why they should be point down, as well.
The handles can fill with water and it needs to drain out. It’s been my experience that the water can only come out through the part where the blade is attached. It’s pretty gross to be slicing up some cheese or something, when you suddenly realize you need to stop what you’re doing and go wash your hands immediately because there’s a bunch of moldy smelling water dripping all over you. This has happened to me many times.
You can avoid this by not soaking the knives, obviously, which I per…
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Point down.
As elsewhere mentioned, no big knives go into those typical drying racks because they could flip out or flip the whole rack over.
Good knives are never left to dry (and never tossed into a drawer with other knives). Hand dry them with a towel, carefully, and put them back into their case or onto a magnetic rack.
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You seem to be talking about sharp prep knives, not table knives. Kitchen knives of this sort should be (carefully!) cleaned by hand, dried by hand with a clean cloth, and put away. This will protect both the knife and your family from damage.
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Neither. You dry them off with a towel, like the civilized person that you are, and place them directly into their drawer or knife block.
Wiping them is the final cleaning step, removing any left over residue. This prevents stains and blemishes and allows you to inspect your handiwork.
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This is somethign i drill into my family,
ALWAYS PUT SHARP KNIVES BLADE DOWN!!!
Butter knives, even forks, i do not mind pointing up, they are blunt enough to not cut, but a steak knife, or a carving knife, blade up means that if i reach for somethign in the dryign rack then i risk slicing my wrist Anythign with a sharpened point is blade down. i even put fondue sticks point down…
Poeple have bene injured, including myself, from blades beign places upwards.
Now, the opposing argument is that the sharp point down may damage the base of the rack or blunt the knife… well, a dryign rack can be replaced, and a knife cna be resharpened. But seriously, do you put a drying rack and a knife at a hgiher value than our, or your family’s body?
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Allowing knives to dry out will cause them to dull faster and possibly corrode. According to Real Simple, “just a few seconds of work will add years to [their] lives.” Placing them in a dish drainer also exposes the blades to other utensils, which could cause harm to your priceless equipment.
It’s also not a good idea to leave sharp devices protruding from a dish rack.
So, the next time you wash your knives by hand, take an extra 10 seconds to get a clean dish towel and wipe away the water (along with all your worries).
A dull knife is risky since it requires greater force to use. The harder you press down, the more likely you are to have an accident. Maintaining a sharp edge will make cooking easier and faster while also keeping you safe.
You’re probably aware that knives should be honed and sharpened. You’re probably also aware that you shouldn’t put them in the dishwasher.
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Sharps must be placed so they aren’t going to cut anybody. I wash and dry my knives immediately after each use, never using a drying rack or dishwasher.
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Depends on the quality of the knife. If these are cheap table knives, the point goes down for reasons of safety; if they’re nice chef knives (like the fancy high-carbon Ueda numbers I’ve been coveting for the past year), you forego the drying rack (and the dishwasher) and clean and dry them by hand . (And possibly oil them).
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I had asked my daughter to wash the dishes one night and wasn’t paying much attention to what she was doing. I grabbed a towel and proceeded to reach for some dishes in the drying rack to dry and put away the dishes. I reached and felt a sharp point grazing my skin. While putting the knives, she had placed the knives point up!
I wasn’t hurt, but was surprised. She thought that was the correct way to dry the knives. I told her, no, place them in point down as it is much safer. Her technique of placing the knives point up, I continued, was creating a Bouquet of Death.
She laughed and still disagreed, but at least when she washes dishes, knives are now pointing down.
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I saw in The West Australian newspaper an article where a toddler had fallen onto an upturned knife waiting patiently on the bottom shelf of a dishwasher. For some unimaginable reason it was reported as “a freak accident”. Luckily the kid wasn’t badly hurt, but in all seriousness, how oblivious do you have to be not to recognize that a few giant knives sticking up in the middle of the kitchen could be a threat to life and limb? I would classify that as an obvious accident waiting to happen any second. A freak accident is when you look both ways at an intersection, carefully proceed but when you’re half way across, a skydiving elephant lands on your car.
Edit – Thanks to Amber Collins, who found this:
imarku Japanese Chef Knife – Pro Kitchen Knife 8 Inch Chef’s Knives
My knives are extremely sharp, so I dry them point down (for safety) in slots in a wooden block so their edges do not contact other knives.
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When using a dishwasher I put blunt dinner knives with rounded point, point upwards as recommended. Sharp knives are either cleaned manually or put in the horizontal holders provided in my last two dishwashers.
If I manually wash sharp knives, I dry them with a paper towel and put them away immediately.
I don’t have a drying rack.
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After washing my knives I much rather prefer to hang them directly onto my magnetic strips. In 13 years of doing this they or the magnetic strips have never rusted from hanging them wet.
However if I’m at someone’s house and they have a drying rack I actually slide them into the small space between the drying rack and whatever it is that catches the water. This preserves the edge and tip, isn’t top heavy, and one doesn’t have to worry about fingers accidentally getting sliced if its laid in or on the drying rack.
Unfortunately, at the moment where I am renting the entire kitchen has gaudy bronze metal decorative backsplash paneling that wouldn’t be an easy fix were I to hang my magnetic strips. So my knives have been pretty much shot since I don’t like putting them in a drawer and I don’t want to invest into knife block because they get nasty eventually. I have looked into countertop magnetic blocks but have never been satisfied with the quality for what I need and counter space real-estate is at an all time prime!
Prior to taking a professional culinary course in 2016 I was going to invest into proper high quality knives but forewent this due to finances. I purchase some cheap Chicago Cutlery (CC) knives which is what I had before and the resin handle finally started chip away and crack after 13 years of no dishwasher use, so some got replaced under warranty, and I did purchase a santoku as well as a couple others. Im not so fussed that these have gotten damaged from not having a proper place to put them. One fine day when my ship comes in and I get my dream kitchen, these shot CC knives will be the ones my guests use if they come to cook with me. Obviously CC is not Shun, Miyabi Mizu, Wüsthof, or Henckels etc. I do have to say though as cheap as it is I find it very good quality and sharpens up very nicely!
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For me, I wash and dry each kitchen knife separately, then I put them in a knife block. That keeps them clean, dry, organized, easy to find, and safe.
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Downwards, the reason is safety. When a knife is upwards, someone may accidentally be hurt or cut, which is not your intent. Otherwise to take it out of the drying rack for you is much easier when the grip is easy to grap for you and put it back to knife rack or into the drawer.
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Why would you use a drying rack? A good knife is the cornerstone of your kitchen. A great knife is worth the price you pay. Spending hard earned money on a great knife or even a good knife and then to follow that up with the laziness of using a drying rack opposed to taking the time to actually dry your knife only shows you are an expert at wasting money. Knives are essential and should be treated as such. Hand wash them and hand dry them and put them away properly ASAP. At home I never leave a knife laying around. I use it and as soon as I’m done with it it is hand washed and dried and put away. Leaving it sit around is an a disaster waiting to happen.
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From a safety point of view. I would say always have knives with points facing down into the rack & have the cutlery section closest to the wall & away from the edge where possible, especially if you have children. I do not have children & while I have the cutlery section closest to the wall, I prefer to have my knives points up so the water drains away from the point & isn’t sitting on it & making it rust. The best way to avoid mishaps on the drying rack with knives is to carefully dry them & put them away as soon as they’re washed, skipping the drying rack altogether.
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