Hello friends,
lately I've been seeing more and more advertisements for titanium cutting boards. They are easy to clean, antibacterial and do not damage the cutting edge because titanium is softer than steel.
I have my doubts about that. My search in the forum has not got me any further. Does anyone have any positive or negative experiences with these titanium chopping boards?
Greetings from Germany
Drilon
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
I have not seen any testing by a source that I trust. I have, however, seen buyer comments that the boards they purchased were stainless steel from China not titanium.
From a google search "Commercially pure grade 1 titanium has a Rockwell B Hardness of 70 – 74"
Seems like a gimmick to me. I would stick with wood myself. Relatively cheap, anti bacterial, easy to clean and maintain and low impact on knives. Also looks good IMO.
If it is softer than you knife the surface will end up with scratches all over it. If that is the look you are going for ...
I've seen the ads, and it's a ridiculous idea in my opinion. Even if they are using titanium, and it's nominally softer than most hardened steel, it's still going to dull a knife faster than wood or plastic due to adhesive wear.
Wooden/plastic boards dull a knife rather quickly.
Any suggestion that a metal cutting board with a significantly higher hardness will not do so faster shows severe disregard for the laws of physics. Especially with how energy is distributed when a micron-thin edge meets a solid metal board at a 90 degrees angle. Ditto with adhesive wear as mentioned by @3D Anvil.
Wood is way softer than ceramics and I'll happily demonstrate how to damage a ceramic knife on a wooden board.
Plus, I highly doubt those titanium cutting boards are actually titanium, given the price of procuring and machining said titanium. Probably some cheap metal like aluminium with traces of titanium. In the best case.
I have a strong hunch that these "titanium cutting boards" are actually titanium nitride coated boards.
Nothing beyond hyperbole and a very stretched reality.