Cut food with fork and sharp knife – metal in food

I usually notice when cutting onions and tomatoes. With a very sharp knife cutting an onion doesn't cause much tears at all. As it dulls though it does more crushing than slicing which releases more gas into the air, which makes you cry more. Ripe tomatoes help because they are so tender. If it becomes difficult to slice a tomato without crushing it, your knife is too dull.

A well used, properly cared for knife should require sharpening every 6-18 months, depending on usage. Mine get sharpened yearly.

You may find it beneficial to read these related questions, and their answers:

• How can I safely improve my cutting technique
• How should I care for my knives?
• Why not put knives in the dishwasher?

I work in a fine dining restaurant, and the standard implement is a bench scraper AKA a dough knife AKA a bench knife. It's basically a stiff, 6" wide sheet of stiff metal with a handle, and can pressed or rocked down on the counter to cut dough into portions. It can also be used to move shaped bread or rolls, cut pastry, fold sticky doughs, and scrape off the counter for cleanup. They're not really knife-sharp per se, but the metal is narrow enough to cut dough well, and a knife would go dull against the hard surface anyway. The best models have measurements engraved into them, so you can consistently size your products, and will stand vertically on the handle (for icing cakes).

Now, for SLASHING risen breads before baking, the correct tool is something called a lame, which is basically a razor with a handle. Or, you can just use your really sharp chef knife (your chef knife IS razor-sharp, right?) and spritz it with pan spray to keep the dough from sticking.