Arachnophobia

[mikewww]

Hi all.

My wife is an arachnophobe, the real deal - hates spiders, not :spyder: s !
So I also got her her very own :spyder: - the Santoku !! A nice addition to the kitchen. This blade has a chisel grind, presumably to allow a rightie to slice things real thin. But I have a question : what is the best material for a chopping/slicing board ? Some say wood, others plastic, and even others who prefer glass. I am thinking of the knife edge being blunted too soon. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Another addition is the Spyker. I thought it would be smaller, but I think it is a strikingly different blade for Spyderco. The CF twills in the handles are an interesting touch.

Regards

Mike

[Vincent]

awsome to get your wife a knife, hope she doesnt get scared of the logo.

[skcusloa]

I'd say wood is the best. It's supposed some how fight off bacteria because it is a former living thing and I think it wood dull the edge less. Glass would scare me because I'd be afraid to break it. I have nothing to back up the wood theory because I heard it on tv...

We use plastic ones from harbor freight, but they're starting to look ugly.

[Michael Cook]

:spyder: Definatly wood, much lower bacteria count. :spyder:

[psimonl]

Wood is definitly the way to go. But stay away from those cheap wood board... Go with maple (Canadian if you can ...)

Simon

[greencobra]

Yeah, wood. I saw on "Good Eats" a little while ago, he recommends wood for everything except meat. He said he uses plastic for that, easier to keep clean. I guess he likes to use bleach on it to kill the bacteria and he can get the bleach off the plastic entirely. I guess it would soak into the wood board.

[silverback]

If you make a cutting board yourself, don't forget to oil it!
Use a vegetable oil, of course. :)
Linseed oil or sth. like that. Gives the wood a nice colour and smooth touch, too. Don't forget to add a groove for blood, juice etc.

[Zwaplat]

Definately not glass. We have some glass cutting boards, it's very bad for your edges (certainly if the steel is soft). I'm looking against a summer of re-edging some of our kitchen blades with my Sharpmaker. Oh dear.
About bacteries, wood isn't prolly the best against them. But plastic gets very ugly after a while, and if you scrub your wooden board good enough, it won't do much harm I suppose. Only scientific research can tell (which does not include: "supposed to...", "afaik", "I guess", "imo", "I heard", etc.).

[sal]

Hi Mike, It's generally the board that dulls kitchen knives. Food is relatively soft and will not easily dull a hard steel. Sharpen little and often is what we do at our house. Knives are always sharp.

You might consider one of our utility serrated models. These are made for cutting boards and will stay very sharp for a very long time on cutting board use because the tips of the teeth protect the recessed cutting edge. In that way, the recessed cutting edge does not hit the board.

sal

[fret]

For me, I use wood boards. I oil my wood boards with Mineral Oil. It won't draw ants and won't get rancid. I wash it with a little bleach and soapy water to keep it sanitary. It gets washed after every use. I never let it sit around dirty. If I cut raw meat, I won't cut anything else on it. I made several boards so I won't run out of clean ones while working in the kitchen. I like wood for everything. It has a natural beauty that glass and plastic can't come close to. And wood won't dull my knives the way glass or plastic will. To me, a wood board that has numerous cuts and mars and wear marks on it is beautiful. Somewhat like a pocket worn knife, that kind of beauty.

[Manifest]

Bamboo cutting board. It's harder so that it's more sanitary but won't dull your knives like glass.

[dialex]

Congrats on your new knives. I hope your wife will enjoy her new "little" acquisition in the kitchen.
Glass boards will kill the edge of your knives, except if you use a SE. I use only wooden boards and I'm pretty satisfied with them.

[sal]

The "contemporary" opinion is that wood boards dry out faster and more completely than plastic or glass boards. The bacteria have a harder time living in a very tiny crack in a dry board. The theory is that plastic boards permit moisture to last longer in the cracks of a plastic or glass boards.

sal

[Chris_H]

Tung oil was always recommended to me for finishing cutting boards.

[mikewww]

Hi guys

Thanks to all of you for the recommendations on the choice of cutting board. I am in the process of studying all of them, but it looks as if wood is a clear winner. We have always used Melamine-coated boards. but not any more.

Thanks, Sal, for the useful tip on the performance of serrated knives. Never thought of it this way.

Regards

Mike

[timlara]

I agree with what greencobra said (I'm also a fan of Alton Brown and "Good Eats"). I use wood cutting boards for everything except for meat, fish, poultry, etc...basically anything that I wouldn't eat raw, especially after it sat out at room temperature for a while.

When looking at wood cutting boards, go with either a "edge grain" or "end grain" model, made of a hardwood like rock maple. The reason that edge grain or end grain boards are better than boards made of single slabs of wood is that they absorb less moisture and are much less prone to warping if they do get a little wet. It's easy to spot an edge or end grain cutting board because it will look like several strips of wood (edge grain) glued together, or several "cubes" if it's an end grain. For an example, look at John Boos cutting boards. They are pretty nice in my experience:

http://www.johnboos.com/ (http://www.johnboos.com/boosblock/jbc0002.asp)

With wood cutting boards, my preference is to get the absolute biggest one you can fit in the kitchen space you have to work with. The added real estate really helps make your knifework much faster and easier.

I like to use slightly smaller "poly" plastic boards for the less safe foods. (I have noticed that most restaurants, at least where I live, seem to be using this type.) The upside to using these boards is that they are very easy to clean and can be bleached or thrown in the dishwasher for sanitization. They are also much cheaper than a nice wood cutting board, so when they start to get too many gouges in them, you can just toss 'em and get new ones. I like to keep 2 or 3 of them around so that I can use them at the same time for different types of food to avoid cross-contamination....

Hope this helps, and enjoy your santoku! Great knife.