Care and materials

Every piece here is listed with its material and the number that governs how it behaves. This page explains
what those numbers mean, how to look after each material, and what our warranty does and does not cover.

The numbers we publish

Material	The number	What it tells you
Clad stainless cookware	Ply and core thickness	How well it holds temperature when cold food goes in, and how fast it recovers
Cast iron	Wall thickness and mass	How much heat it stores, which is what sears
Enamelled cast iron	Oven-safe temperature with the lid	Whether it can finish a braise in the oven
Knives	Steel and Rockwell hardness (HRC), edge angle	How fine an edge it takes, how long it holds, how brittle it is
Stoneware and porcelain	Water absorption	Whether it will craze, stain or hold a smell
Borosilicate glass	Thermal expansion / oven rating	Whether it survives a temperature change
Wood	Grain orientation and thickness	Whether it blunts a blade, and whether it can be resurfaced
Storage	Temperature range and gasket type	Whether it survives a freezer and whether the seal can be cleaned

Reading a Rockwell number

A blade at 60–61 HRC takes a finer edge and holds it longer, and chips more easily on a bone or a
frozen edge. A blade at 56–58 forgives more and needs the steel more often. Neither is better. The number
tells you which tool you are holding, and it is on every knife page here.

Reading water absorption

Under half a percent is vitrified: the body is effectively closed, so it will not craze into hairlines,
will not stain from tomato or turmeric and will not hold a smell. Above about three percent is earthenware,
which does all three within a year — often in the same shapes at the same price.

Care, by material

Clad stainless

Preheat on medium and let it come up slowly. Deglaze while warm. Dishwasher safe, though hand washing
keeps the exterior bright. A straw or blue tint inside is oxide from heat, not damage; it comes off with a
stainless cleaner if it bothers you.

Cast iron, bare

Dry it on the hob after washing and wipe a film of neutral oil in while warm. Do not soak it. The seasoning
darkens and improves with use; that is the surface working, not wear.

Enamelled cast iron

Never heat it empty — that is what crazes enamel. Wood or silicone rather than metal on the rim.

Knives

Hand wash and dry immediately. Steel before each session, stone twice a year. Cut on wood, never on glass,
stone or a plate. A dishwasher will dull an edge in one cycle and loosen a riveted handle over a year.

Wood

Hand wash, stand on edge to dry, oil monthly with food-grade mineral oil. Never a dishwasher, and never
leave it flat and wet — that is the one thing that splits a board along a glue line.

Stoneware and glass

Dishwasher, microwave and oven safe to the temperature on the page. No ceramic survives a jump from freezer
to hot oven; that is a property of the material and not a defect.

Our warranty

Goods carry the manufacturer’s warranty stated on the product page. Beyond that, we replace or refund
anything that arrives damaged, incomplete or not as described. For a fault appearing later within the
manufacturer’s period, we handle the claim for you — email
support@tblholdings.store with your order number.

What the warranty does not cover

Damage from use outside the published care instructions: a knife through a dishwasher, a board left wet, an
enamelled pot heated empty, a stoneware dish taken from freezer to hot oven. Normal wear: patina, oxide tint,
a board needing resurfacing, an edge needing sharpening, wood darkening with oil. Batch variation in glaze
tone, grain and clay speckle, which is the material rather than a fault.