How to care for your Foxcreek Bow Knife and Cutting Board

Hand Made By Foxcreek Baskets and Woodworking

Gatlinburg, TN 

601 Glades Rd. Suite 6

The Foxcreek Bow Knife

Thank you for purchasing our amazing Foxcreek Bow Knife, our family greatly appreciates the support!  Our knife is a little different from most due to the unique angle of our knife, the design of our knife since it contours to your hand,  and the thicker steel meat blade. The reason for the angle is so that you can get a complete cut without the bow part of the knife touching the board. And the reason for the thicker blade is so that you can cut many hard vegetables and fruits such as sweet potato, butternut squash, acorn squash, rutabagas, and pineapples. Also since our bow knife has a meat blade on it, it will also cut pork tenderloin, roast, turkey, ham, as well as other meats.  The blades are either carbon steel or stainless steel. The carbon steel blade will stay sharp 15-20 years, but you have to make sure you wipe the blade dry after hand washing or it will rust. The stainless steel blade is a no maintenance blade and it will NOT rust but it will only stay sharp between 5 to 10 years depending on how much you use it.  We do sell replacement blades for $5.00 for the carbon steel and $8.00 for the stainless steel.  However, since we put on our blades with a jig, you would either need to put the knife in a vice to replace yourself or you can just mail it to us once it is dull so that we can put the new blade on for you. And because our knife contours to your hand, it truly helps people with arthritis, carpal tunnel, MS, etc.  It is truly the best knife you can put in your kitchen. We hope you enjoy our handcrafted knife!

Directions for use: The Bow  Knife—To hold,  put thumb on fox's tail for right handed people and index finger along the back of the bow, like you are scratching the fox's back. The reason you put your index finger out straight along the outside of the handle is because this releases the tendons in your wrist.  For left handed people you would put your thumb on the fox's face.  To cut straight you will look at the blade, not the handle,  and hold straight up and down. It is awkward at first, but once you use it and get used to the way to hold your knife, it is truly the most comfortable tool you will ever use in your kitchen.  Do NOT push with our knife, just move it back and forth with long strokes and  don’t force it. For harder vegetables such as sweet potato or butternut squash just pick up the pace and move the knife back and forth a little faster, but do NOT push.  We recommend that you only use wood cutting boards with our bow knife in order for the blade to stay sharp. If you use glass or other rock or marble type substances you will dull your knife. Also if you use plastic or polyurethane cutting boards, you will be eating plastic or polyurethane so we do NOT recommend those cutting boards.  

Never put the bow knife in the dishwasher, and never leave it in the sink if it is a carbon steel blade, for it WILL rust. If you were to let it rust accidentally,  you can use steel wool to get the rust off and then oil your blade with mineral oil or olive oil.

To Wash:  simply use a mild dish detergent, but NO BLEACH.  Clean or scrub with sponge from the blunt side of knife, then rinse, and if you have a carbon steel blade then make sure you  DRY the blade. Also more people get cut putting the cover back on, so we recommend you leave the blade cove OFF or use at your discretion. But if you have a carbon steel blade which has a black cover for right hand or white cover for left then you would need to keep oil on your blade otherwise it would corrode inside the blade cover. For stainless steel, the blade covers are blue or green.  We recommend finding a place in your kitchen to hang the knife without putting the blade cover on it. Or if you purchased your knife as a set with a cutting board then it will have a slot in it for your knife to sit in the cutting board and you can leave it out on the counter in your cutting board. 

Check out our how to  videos on YouTube at Foxcreek Baskets and Facebook at Foxcreek Baskets or instagram  @foxcreek_baskets  

The cutting board—Never soak your board or put in dishwasher.  Clean your board with any mild dish soap, again no bleach, use white vinegar for disinfecting. You would then need to dry and apply mineral oil or your choice of a beeswax wood spoon mixture which we do make and have for sale on our website. It is amazing stuff and will bring other wood furniture back to life.  For the first few months,  you will want to season your cutting board by applying mineral oil or our beeswax butter to it at least once a week. After a few months, oil only when board looks dry.

Items we recommend cutting with our bow knife—bread, bagels, pineapple, bananas( don't turn brown,  apples(don't turn brown), avocados (don't turn brown), tomatoes, celery, cabbage and lettuce(shreds these very fine and also doesn't turn brown), onions, sweet potatoes, butternut and acorn squash,  corn(takes it off the cob), turnips, ginger, cooked meats such as pork tenderloin, turkey, ham, pepperoni,  deli chickens, also will cut raw meats.   Also this knife makes the best cheese knife too, just simply push straight down through the cheese, do not saw back and forth with cheese.  Everything else is a sawing motion but cheese you push straight through.  We hope this gives you many ideas to make your life easier in the kitchen

Thank  you, 

The Foxcreek Family

Joe, Cassie, Ryland, Emma, and  Scott Nelson as well as my Mom, Bonnie and my cousin, Belinda

Also, some natural holes and blemishes are to be expected occasionally. We do use recaptured woods in our wonderful Knives.