My knives cut raw chicken, raw pork, raw beef. I want them to be clean. Dishwasher. Knives are expendable supplies. If they need sharpened I sharpen them. If they need replaced I replace them. Getting a little more life from knives that will last 5 to 10 years is not a good trade-off vis-a-vis bacteria growing on the blade or hilt that gets transferred to our food. First, dishwashers make things no more sanitary than does hand washing. In fact, home dishwashers (unlike commercial ones) contain NO sanitizing agent, so a DW is really no more sanitary than is hand washing, unless you use water at 180 F or higher. The Food Safety Code allows either type of washing to be used for any type of dishes, or tool. If you want to sanitize your knives, after washing, dip them in a container that contains one cap (yes, cap, NOT cup) full of standard, plain bleach in a gallon of cold water. One minute in this solution will sanitize your knives. This solution must be made fresh daily, as the Chlorine dissipates over time. Yes, knives can easily be replaced, but why waste money? Several knives in my house are 40+ years old, and almost all are 20+ years old. As edlakin says, most cooks use one knife for everything. After cutting up some chickens, they (we) wash their knives, dry them, and store them. This storing dry helps kill bacteria by desiccation. After the chicken are cooked, they (we) use the same knife to cut the chicken into portions. Happens millions of time per day, and I don't see people keeling over in the streets daily from food borne illnesses. So relax a little, and treat your knives to hand washing. They will thank you.

I've used a Chinese chef's knife (sometimes called a Chinese cleaver) as my principal knife for the last 40+ years. With some care to strike squarely it can halve a chicken in two blows. (Strike at even a slight angle and it can slip, cut you and/or permanently damage the edge.) The same knife can be used to do something as delicate as peeling an apple (which I do regularly) or carving a radish rose (which a chef friend does regularly). Dexter-Russell makes very good Chinese chef's knives. They are the only knives in the kitchen of our favorite Chinese restaurant. (The chef-owner is the friend I mentioned.) We have two in our kitchen - a largish one for me and a smallish one for DW. They retail for $30-$35 in restaurant supply houses and $40-$50 from consumer cooking sources. I recently had an opportunity to try the $175 Shun Chinese chef's knife that I have long coveted. It felt nice in the hand, was amazingly sharp out of the box, and will doubtless hold its edge better than my Dexter-Russell, but there is no way I could justify spending the additional $140.

It only takes 20 seconds to wash a knife if you are already washing other dishes. Those of us who wash knives in the dishwasher put everything in there. If I had to wash a knife by hand, I would have to take out my dishwashing supplies and sanitize the sponge or dishcloth after. I am a clean freak, but this is a task I do NOT enjoy. If I need another knife when one is in the DW, I go and get one of the others. I have duplicates for this purpose. I hone them regularly and have not had any issues with putting them in the DW. And actually, the reason I started putting them in the DW to begin with is because DH refused to hand wash knives. I got us both new matching Wusthof Classic chef knives and put a rubber band on mine. I handwashed mine. He didn't. I didn't notice a difference after a year. Really. Try it. Since then, everything goes in the DW. That said, I can't wait to get my new DW with cutlery tray!

We have a friend who has a walk-all-around work surface (hate to call it an island, more like sawhorses with curtains underneath) made of two old large butcherblock countertops so there's a seam at back, parallel to long sides. His knives are kept in slit at the seam area--not sure if he routed it out or not. No special slot for any single knife, just dump them in the long groove. He loves to roast large cuts of meat Renaissance style, so that surface is his butchershop as well as his slicing and serving spot. That product featured above with the bamboo sticks is very interesting, but would have same problem as other knife blocks--the distance to pull up before moving laterally with the knife. My problem is the desire to locate the knives deep to back of countertop, under the uppers. I have two well-used blocks, but have to pull them to front of counter before lifting knives upward. Angled blocks suck up too much precious space.