Chef’s knives can be made of a wide variety of handle materials. The kind of material you choose is very important. The speed of your cooking, and the durability of your knife depends upon the kind of material you choose. The most important feature of your knife is the kind of grip that you get from it; the handle is what determines that. Knife handles are made of wood, plastic, combination of wood and plastic, metal and other substances. Of them, wooden handles are widely popular and used by a lot of people.
Wooden handles are good-looking, authentic and they are considered to be a luxury. They provide a beautiful shape to the chef’s knife and they match with any kind of blade. They have good finish and color and also provide an excellent grip. In fact, they provide the best grip among all other materials. The maintenance of a knife with a wooden handle can be quite tricky. First of all, it requires regular care. You need to maintain the handle carefully, as it is vulnerable to water damage. You should reduce prolonged contact with water, as it reduces the durability of the wood. You have to clean it up and apply mineral oil once in a while.
As it is susceptible to water, wooden handles should not be immersed in water. The moisture in the surface is an inviting option for bacteria and they are found to cause infections in food material. So, you have to dry the knife thoroughly before and after the use. In commercial places like hotels and restaurants, this kind of a personal care for knives cannot be taken, so they are not used in commercial places. They need to be very careful not to have water contact with the knife often. This kind of tedious task is not possible in busy places. So, they are used for homes, where a private cook or the home members take care of the cleaning and maintenance purposes. Wooden handles are available in lots of varieties of wood, and they are very affordable.