A carbon steel knife should be hand washed and dried immediately after use. I recommend that you also apply food safe oil onto the knife steel and handle once per week in order to prevent rusting. I include a small tin of knife wax to help get you started on properly maintaining your knife.

No, the heat and the chemicals used in a dishwasher are too harsh for the knife.

You should HONE your knife with a honing steel before each use, honing your knife is not the same as sharpening. Honing keeps the edge straight and aligned at a microscopic level. Sharpening is removing material and creating a new edge. So only sharpen your knife when it’s still dull even after honing. Every knife that I sell I will sharpen for free as long as the customer pays for the postage required.

In my 13 plus years in the restaurant industry as a cook and later a head chef, I find that carbon steel is a bit easier to sharpen. Though if you use your knife as for something it was intended for, carbon steel and stainless steel will bend and break. So do not use your knife as a pry bar or screw driver.

A full tang is potentially stronger than a hidden tang, but when it come to kitchen knives that are not meant for hacking at trees, the tang style does not affect the performance of the knife.