If you ask any professional chef which is the most important cooking tool, the answer will undoubtedly be the knife. Knives are being used since the early days of man starting with rock and bone knives.
There is a wide range of knives: chef's knife, boning, paring, turning, filleting, carving, bread, decoration, tomato, cake, salmon slicer, cleaver, just to name a few.
Quality knives are expensive and must be regarded as an investments. Once acquired, they must be cleaned properly and well maintained. A dull knife is dangerous. Always use a sharp knife. Before each use, steel your knife in an attempt to "true" the edge, which realigns the molecules of the blade and maintains the accuracy of the edge. Depending on the frequency of use, knives must be sharpened using a sharpening stone or professional rotating stone. those are the reasons why you should use sharp knives:
Safety: A sharp knife is far safer than a dull one. It is far less likely to slip when slicing certain food items. cause in the case of dull knife you apply more pressure to cut and that can lead to some nasty accidents.
Efficiency: It will take much longer to prepare a meal with a dull knife.
Appearance: Where prepared food items are on display, those cut or sliced with a sharp knife have a far more attractive appearance.
Fatigue: Dull knife need pressure and more control which may lead to fatigue.
Portion Control: A sharp knife will cut exactly the portion required. A dull one will not. Test this statement by cutting a tomato with a dull, then sharp knife.
