Can You Put Chef Knives in the Dishwasher? (Will It Ruin the Knife?)

Updated August 2026 · 7 min read · UK Japanese-steel knife specialists

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A chef's knife is the workhorse of the kitchen. It handles mincing, dicing, slicing and chopping, and for a lot of people it is the prized possession in the knife collection.

For something that valuable it pays to know how to look after it properly, from the correct Japanese sharpening angle right down to how you wash it. And the washing question we get asked most is whether a chef's knife can go in the dishwasher.

It shouldn't. A dishwasher can cause rusting and spotting, blunting and dullness of the blade, discolouration, damage to the handle and to your other cutlery, and in some cases it will chip the edge outright. A chef's knife should be washed by hand in warm soapy water and dried immediately.

That surprises plenty of people, so below we set out exactly what happens to a chef's knife inside the machine, and the right way to clean one instead. If yours has already come out marked, here is how to remove rust from a knife.

Can You Put Chef Knives in the Dishwasher

Physically, yes — the machine will run. The question is what it costs you, and the answer is edge life.

Nobody is going to stop you putting your own knife in your own dishwasher. But every cycle takes a little off the edge, and the damage is cumulative. The knife never comes out visibly ruined; it just stops biting into a tomato skin one day, and you can't point to the moment it happened.

Professional chefs and knife enthusiasts have gone over this ground for years and the conclusion is always the same: keep a good chef's knife out of the dishwasher.

Good knives are expensive, and they need regular care to give you the lifespan you paid for. A dishwasher works against that faster than almost anything else in the kitchen. So just because you can put a chef's knife in the dishwasher, it doesn't mean you should.

Why Is a Dishwasher Bad for Your Chef's Knife

If you have a relatively cheap stainless steel knife or a commercial-grade kitchen knife, you'll find some are built to be dishwasher friendly — but that is a very specific set of knives.

If instead you have high-quality chef's knives or ceramic knives with the features people buy them for — a wooden handle, Damascus cladding over a high-carbon stainless steel core, or a particularly keen edge (ground to a shallow angle of around 15° per side, as covered in our guide to the sharpening angle) — then a dishwasher is bad news.

There are a handful of reasons for that, and they combine.

Rusting and staining. A hot, wet, humid box is not where you want to leave a good knife. That environment can mark or corrode the blade and it is hard on the handle.

Our knives are made from high-carbon stainless steel — VG10, AUS-10 and similar — and the chromium in that steel is what keeps them rust-resistant. Rust-resistant is not rust-proof: hard water, detergent residue and a long damp dwell time can still leave spotting or fine pitting over repeated cycles. A traditional wooden handle fares worse still.

Abrasive detergent. The most common reason people give for keeping knives out of the dishwasher is the detergent, and it is a fair one. Dishwasher detergents are strongly alkaline and mildly abrasive by design — that is how they shift baked-on food.

That high pH and the abrasives are not kind to a fine edge. Over repeated cycles they can dull the finish, etch the surface and pit lower-grade steels. Combine that with high heat and a long damp cycle and you have an unfavourable environment for any knife you care about.

Damage during the cycle. The biggest problem is the cycle itself. Dishwashers fire high-powered jets of water at your cutlery to break down food, residue and stains.

It's a very good system for plates. It is a poor one for knives, because those jets move items around during the cycle — especially anything sitting loose in a basket — and moving items collide.

That is no issue for basic cutlery. But with a finely sharpened knife, repeated collisions roll the edge over almost immediately and can, on occasion, chip it.

Does washing a knife in the dishwasher make it dull?

One of the downsides to putting knives in your dishwasher is that they get damaged by contact with other objects.

The water jets shooting out from every direction can knock a knife into glassware or bowls, which chips and dulls the blade.

There's also detergent residue on the dishes, which works on both stainless steel and ceramic blades over time — especially if you use bleach products or live in a hard water area.

How to Correctly Clean Your Chef Knives

There are a surprising number of ways to get knife cleaning wrong, and most of them shorten the life of the blade.

It sounds like a simple task, and you might think we're overstating it. But cleaning a chef's knife correctly is one of those small habits that decides whether the knife is still good in ten years.

Most of the problems we listed above apply to other cleaning methods too. Leaving knives to soak in a sink of hot water and detergent has much the same effect as the dishwasher: rust, corrosion and a dulled edge.

The right way to clean a chef's knife is by hand, straight after use — or set to one side and washed shortly afterwards. We sell these knives and we clean ours the same way. The one rule we'd never break is leaving a knife to soak in a full sink, because that is exactly where the edge meets a cast-iron pan and comes off worse.

So, to clean a chef's knife properly and keep it in condition, follow these steps:

1. Hand-wash each knife on its own in warm soapy water. Boiling water isn't necessary and it's harder on a wooden handle than warm water is — that, rather than any risk to the blade, is the reason to skip it.
2. Rinse and dry by hand straight away. Air drying leaves water sitting on the blade, and that will eventually mark or rust it whatever the steel.
3. Put the knife away as soon as it's dry — on a magnetic rack, in a block, or in a drawer organiser.

These are simple steps, but they go a long way to keeping a knife in top condition.

Subjecting a chef's knife to unfavourable conditions, or letting it knock against other utensils, is the quickest route to a dull blade. That might seem trivial, but most good chef knives — particularly Japanese-steel knives such as a santoku — carry a very fine edge, and a fine edge is easily damaged if it isn't handled with care.

Why should you wash knives separately?

Always wash knives separately from the rest of your dishware, for your own safety as much as the knife's. Keep them out of the bowl where the spoons, forks and spatulas are, so you're never reaching blind into soapy water.

It's also safer for the blade. Washing sharp knives on their own means nothing scratches or chips them. Hand-wash in warm water and soap, and dry them off afterwards with a towel before they go away.

Why do knives rust in the dishwasher?

Dishwashers don't submerge your knives, they spray them — repeatedly, with hot water and detergent, and then leave everything sitting damp in a warm, closed box until you open the door. It's that combination of hot spray and long damp dwell time that marks blades, not standing water.

The knives are also sitting on a wet surface once the cycle finishes, unless you empty the machine straight away. A wet, humid environment is the one thing a knife edge really doesn't want.

There's detergent in that water too, which is tough on some blades — they can dull or spot far quicker than normal after a run through harsh chemicals.

It doesn't seem like much at the time, but over a few years it's the difference between sharpening a knife and replacing it. Wash sharp items separately and they'll last longer and stay sharper.

Does dishwashing knives dull them?

The short answer is yes, it can — though not always, and not always to a degree you'd notice straight away. Part of it is mechanical, from the knocking about during the cycle. The rest is chemical: alkaline dishwasher detergents are abrasive, and over repeated cycles they can etch the surface and take the crispness off an edge that was sharpened to a fine angle.

Are there any dishwasher safe kitchen knives?

Some knives are sold as dishwasher-safe — typically stamped stainless blades with moulded synthetic handles. They survive it; they were never built to hold a fine edge in the first place. That label tells you what the knife is, not that the dishwasher is harmless.

So if a cheap utility knife is labelled dishwasher-safe, put it in and don't lose sleep. Anything you sharpened yourself, paid real money for, or would be annoyed to replace should be washed by hand — dishwasher-safe label or not.

FAQ

Can you put knives in the dishwasher?

No, not if you care about the knife. The edge knocks against other items and rolls or chips, hot alkaline detergent dulls the finish, and the long damp cycle is hard on handles. Wash by hand in warm soapy water and dry straight away.

Are stainless steel knives dishwasher safe?

Stainless steel resists rust, but rust is only one of the three problems. The knocking that rolls and chips an edge, and the dulling effect of alkaline detergent, apply to stainless just as much as to anything else. A good stainless knife still belongs in the sink.

What actually happens to a knife in the dishwasher?

Three things. The jets move items around, so the edge collides with plates and cutlery and rolls or chips. Alkaline detergent is abrasive, dulling the finish and pitting lower-grade steel over repeated cycles. And the heat plus the long damp dwell time dries out or loosens a wooden handle.

How should you clean a kitchen knife instead?

Wash it on its own in warm soapy water, running the cloth along the blade from spine to edge rather than across it. Rinse, dry immediately with a tea towel, and put it away on a rack, in a block or in a drawer organiser. The whole thing takes under a minute.

My knife has already been through the dishwasher — is it ruined?

Usually not. A dulled edge comes back with twenty minutes on a whetstone; a chipped one needs a coarse stone first to take the damage out before you refine the edge. Only deep pitting or a split handle is genuinely terminal.

Conclusion

Are knives dishwasher safe? The dishwasher looks like the quick, convenient way to clean your chef knives, but you'll do more harm than good.

You could take every precaution going to minimise the risk of dishwashing them. We'd still say that for the couple of minutes it takes to wash a knife by hand, you keep the blade in condition for years longer — and you save yourself the sharpening sessions you'd otherwise need once the edge has gone.

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