How to Care for and Sharpen a Hand-Forged Damascus Knife

After every use: wash, dry, done

Wash the blade by hand in warm water with a little mild dish soap, using a soft cloth or sponge. Never put a forged carbon blade in a dishwasher — the heat, the long wet cycle and the harsh detergent will dull the etch, rust the steel and loosen a wooden handle.

Dry it immediately and completely, blade and handle, with a soft towel. Water left sitting on high-carbon steel is what causes spotting, and it starts within minutes on acidic food residue like lemon, tomato or onion. If you are cutting those, rinse and dry as you go.

Oiling the blade

Before you put the knife away for more than a day or two, wipe the blade with a few drops of food-safe mineral oil on a paper towel. For a kitchen knife, mineral oil or camellia oil is right; avoid vegetable and olive oil, which go sticky and rancid.

For a non-kitchen piece — sword, axe, display knife — a light gun oil or paste wax works well. Once a month is plenty for a blade in a dry room; once a week if you live somewhere humid or coastal.

Storing it properly

Store the knife dry: in its sheath or leather roll, in a wooden block, on a magnetic strip, or in a drawer with an edge guard. What you want to avoid is a sealed plastic sleeve, which traps moisture against the steel, and a damp garage or basement.

Leather sheaths are for carrying, not long-term storage. Tanning chemicals in leather draw moisture and can etch a blade left inside for months.

Sharpening without ruining the pattern

Use a whetstone. Soak or wet the stone, hold the blade at roughly the angle the maker ground it — usually somewhere around 15 to 20 degrees per side on a kitchen blade — and draw the edge across with light, consistent pressure, alternating sides until a burr forms. Finish on a finer grit and strop on leather or the palm of an old belt.

Between sharpenings, a few passes on a ceramic or steel honing rod realigns the edge and keeps it biting for weeks.

Avoid pull-through sharpeners and powered grinders. Pull-throughs tear steel out of the edge, and a grinder's heat can undo the heat treatment the blade was forged for. Only the extreme edge needs touching, so the etched pattern across the flat of the blade is never at risk.

Fixing a spot of rust

Light orange spotting comes off with a cork or a wine bottle cork dipped in mineral oil, or the finest grade of steel wool used gently with oil. Work along the blade, not across it, then wash, dry and re-oil.

A darker grey-brown patina is different — that is a stable oxide layer that actually protects carbon steel. Many owners of forged pieces deliberately let it form. Leave it alone.