The hidden danger lurking on your coated knives

Do You Really Need a Coating on Your Knife?

Black, coloured, painted and non-stick knives can certainly look fashionable and eye-catching.

But at Blade & Butler, we have a very simple question:

Why put a synthetic coating on a knife in the first place?

Stainless steel is already smooth, hygienic and perfectly capable of slicing through food. It has been

doing the job extremely well for generations without needing paint, PTFE or another decorative coating

between the blade and your dinner.

Some non-stick coatings use PTFE—the material commonly associated with the Teflon name—which

falls within broad definitions of the PFAS family.

PFAS have become known as “forever chemicals” because many are extraordinarily persistent in the

environment. This persistence, together with concerns surrounding certain PFAS and human health, is

why the entire group is receiving increasing scrutiny across Britain and Europe.

A kitchen knife is also a working tool. It is chopped with, washed, wiped, sharpened and repeatedly

drawn across food and chopping boards. Coatings can become scratched, chipped or worn.

Our view is , if you don't need a synthetic coating on a surface that repeatedly touches your

food, why have one?

And What About Painted Knives?

The same principle applies to painted and colour-coated blades.

Paints can contain pigments, binders, additives and other chemicals. Food-contact safety therefore

depends upon exactly what has been used and whether the finished coating has been properly

manufactured and tested for its intended use.

This is particularly important with inexpensive knives where the origin and precise composition of a

decorative coating may not always be obvious to the consumer.

European food-safety rules exist for precisely this reason: materials intended to contact food should not

transfer their constituents into food at levels that could endanger human health.

With an ordinary uncoated stainless-steel knife, there simply isn't a painted surface to worry about.

What Happens When We Sharpen Them?

There is another unavoidable consequence when servicing coated knives.

Sharpening works by removing steel to create a new cutting bevel. If paint, PTFE or another coating

extends into this area, professional sharpening will remove that coating wherever the new bevel is

created.

The photograph below shows exactly what happens.

This isn't incorrect sharpening. It's the inevitable consequence of putting a surface coating onto a tool

whose cutting edge is specifically designed to be ground and renewed throughout its working life.

At Blade & Butler, we regard most decorative blade coatings as largely unnecessary.

They may make a knife look unusual or striking, but they don't make a properly manufactured stainless-steel

blade fundamentally better at cutting your food.

Our advice?

Choose a good-quality uncoated stainless-steel or ceramic knife.

Keep it sharp, look after it properly and let the blade do the work.

Sometimes the simplest solution was always the best. If it ain't broke....