Using plastic cutting board

[Sharpco]

There are two main types of cutting boards. One is wood, the other is plastic. If I use a plastic cutting board, do I have to set a larger edge angle?

[kwakster]

Personally i don't do that, i always set the edge angle that works best for a specific knife (and it's user)
Now that edge will last longer on a good end grain wooden cutting board, as plastic in general tends to be more abrasive on knife edges.
Especially those thick plastic boards used in commercial kitchens here in Europe are real edge killers.

Now there seem to exist high quality plastic cutting boards that are gentle on knife edges, and those are made from a material called polyvinyl acetate.
These boards are mostly only used in Japanese commercial kitchens, and so far i've never seen them where i live.

[wootz]

Kwakster is talking of the Japanese polyvinyl acetate Yoshihiro Hi-Soft cutting board - it doesn't dull the edge, but costs a little fortune.

My quick test on the PT50 shows that 20 slices on a plastic, glass, marble and bamboo cutting boards reduce sharpness by 3 times, e.g. from 90 BESS to 270 BESS.

[RichColvin]

Wootz,

That is interesting.  How does that compare with wooden cutting boards ?

Kind regards,
Rich

[wootz]

Good you asked, Rich.

As we now get 50 BESS or 0.1 micron edge on kitchen knives in volume sharpening - this is sharpness of the Gillette safety razor, my wife's kitchen Global knife was that sharp 3 days ago.

After use on a wooden board for 3 days, it now scores 90 BESS; if it were a plastic cutting boars, would have been 300 BESS I guess.

Our new breakthrough sharpening protocol is detailed in this thread on the BESS forum:
http://www.bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=209&pid=1602#pid1602

[Sharpco]

Good you asked, Rich.

As we now get 50 BESS or 0.1 micron edge on kitchen knives in volume sharpening - this is sharpness of the Gillette safety razor, my wife's kitchen knife was that sharp 3 days ago.

After use on a wooden board for 3 days, it now scores 90 BESS.

Our new breakthrough sharpening protocol is detailed in this thread on the BESS forum:
http://www.bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=209&pid=1602#pid1602

Amazing!

[Herman Trivilino]

I would think that slicing technique would be very important. Most people use dull knives in their kitchens and get used to pressing hard when slicing. Give them a sharp knife and the habit continues. Professional chefs are used to using sharp knives and would not suffer from this malady.

[Crusty]

Good point Herman, My wife tends to chop  so the whole blade makes contact with the board at the same time  They don't last very long in her hands, I tend to slice with only the tip of the blade in contact with the board and naturally the edge retention is much better.
As a note, I have been using an old Jarrah cutting board that I made about 35 years ago, It was actually an off-cut from when i used to build staircases. Back in those days Jarrah had a better fire rating than steel and was used in fire stairs. As a cutting board it is still going great too

[Herman Trivilino]

This was years ago, before granite counter tops became popular. My parents remodeled and had new laminate counter tops. My mother asked me to verify that my father should use a cutting board rather than slice right on the counter top to avoid damaging it. As long as you use a gentle touch you're okay, but I bit my tongue to avoid taking sides! 

[SharpenADullWitt]

Wootz,

Does wood type matter?

I know there are a couple different types of plastic cutting boards, some harder, some softer.  I also know there are wooden cutting boards of various species, as well as commercial ones that are man made types of wood (for examples look at some of the pizza cutting boards, thinnner)

I do know that slicing verse chopping does make a difference, as well as the user (saw someone who should know better, chopping a newly sharpened knife into a cutting board for no reason, made me cringe).  Slicing, sometimes one can rotate the food and never even make contact with the cutting board, but I wouldn't want to hold food I am chopping.