The famous chef Gordon Ramsey recommends sharpening cook’s knife every time before you start using it.  In his book, Gordon Ramsay’s Home Cooking: Everything You Need to Know to Make Fabulous Food, he says:

“A blunt knife is way more dangerous than a sharp one as it can easily skid off what you are cutting and do serious damage to fingers. Get into the habit of brushing your knife against a steel every time you use it.”

You can master your skills to sharpen the knife with the steel stick and technique as the chef describes in his book. I actually did – practiced a lot to develop a confident and fast rhythm. Now I feel how cool I am while brushing my knives with the steel stick 🙂 Just be very careful while practicing and remember that a knife is a very sharp and quite dangerous thing to play with! Or maybe better just use the Electric Knife Sharpener to make your life easy.

So once your knife is sharp, it’s ready to use. Just keep in mind few common techniques working with the knife:

• make sure your cutting board is steadily placed on the table
• use dishcloth under the board to prevent it from slipping on the table
• hold firmly whatever you are cutting and press it down onto the board
• keep your fingers tucked in on the hand which holds what you are cutting
• use your upper knuckles to guide what you slice
• always cut forward
• hold the knife by the blade, keeping the bottom of the blade between your thumb and the side of your forefinger
• grip your middle, ring, and pinky fingers around the handle for better support
• avoid laying your forefinger over the spine of the knife

The best choice of a cutting board would be a heavy wooden board.  You will be cutting onto a steady and solid surface which will not blunt your knife. Another choice could be plastic boards. They are practical and easy to clean.