We only use our wood boards for cooked meats. We use plastic for raw meats and we put them in the dishwasher. I've been pretty confident the long hot cycle in a dishwasher would clean them adequately. I haven't thought much about what to do when cutting raw meats on wood. Never heard of titanium cutting boards, how does it not hurt the knives?
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If you sand your wooden cutting boards from time to time, working through the proper grits (100-120-220 (if you want a smooth as butter finish then go up to 320)). That'll get rid of those fine scratches.
Then reapply a proper finishing paste/wax to seal it, you'll eliminate a lot of the potential for food getting trapped in grooves, and it'll keep your boards looking sharp!
I do this for the wooden spoons & spatulas I carved, and the store-bought ones too.
The little jar of wax I bought years ago from the local woodworking store, is called Georges Club House Wax. I've barely used any of it. Everything wooden gets a fresh coat of it about every 6-8 months or so. You can make your own with beeswax and mineral oil, if you feel like it.
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Ah yeah. Well, there’s really a bunch of choices out there. A local woodworking store might have it. I think as long as it’s beeswax and mineral oil, you can’t got wrong. Just look for butchers block wax. Anything liquid will eventually raise the grain, since wood is hydroscopic, so something to seal it (even just mineral oil) helps a lot in that regard.Last edited by dpearce; April 5, 2025, 08:02 AM.
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I’m no expert, however, I would tend to believe that titanium, like any metal, would be hard on any knife’s edge. Additionally, we use our butcher block almost exclusively for all of our cutting needs. Cleaning it and oiling it are part of the routine. It really is the hub of the kitchen, although, it does sit in the middle of the kitchen and the kitchen isn’t huge!
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Huskee - what type of plastic boards do you use? My biggest plastic boards is hard plastic (acrylic, Plexiglass, Perspex), and I have two smaller boards of softer plastic (high density polyethylene, I think). Easy to leave cut lines on.
Thinking of ditching the hard plastic (because of knife dulling) and going to wood. No sanitation worries here.Comment
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Very interesting thread for sure. I have never heard of titanium boards so this is a first. I use wood boards for years, but also have a few plastic.Comment
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I've a nice end cut wooden board. It gets scrubbed and sprayed with a bleach dilution, then hot water rinse. Every two months it gets oiled and waxed with Clark's cutting board conditioner.Comment
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Just soap and hot water for 25 years on my old Blue gum board, no-one has died yet. I reckon to take anything you read, anywhere now, with a grain of salt. To many "what-ifs" and " I wonder what would happen" based stories looking for attention..Comment
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Whenever I see adds for "this is the best product for you to use" My first question is who is trying to sell it.
I almost always use wooden cutting boards (home made end grain birch, maple) I try to avoid anything plastic as I'm getting more and more concerned about microplastics.
I can't imagine using metal which could really screw up some pretty nice Japanese Damascus steel cutlery which except for honing I haven't had to sharpen in more than a year.
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Wood cutting boards only in our house. (stopped using other materials a number of years ago)
Wash with hot soapy water and air dry (except for the end grain). Hit them with conditioner once a month, or so.
Haven't been any issues.Comment
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I have seen the ads for titanium boards. I have been using plastic or bamboo or hardwood boards for decades and I have had zero problems. A good wash with hot soapy water and a scrub sponge or brush.
If you follow good hygiene practices you should not have any problems.Comment
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Titanium is very hard and I feel that it would be bad for the edge of the knife blade, you know, the business end.
My wife threw out all our plastic boards over concern with microplastics, and replaced with bamboo and wood boards. I wish she hadn’t done that unilaterally, but it wasn’t a hill worth fighting for, so I’m living it. None are deeply gouged, save my large bamboo board, that is older, and a risk I’m gonna live with. Parts per million. Quality of life years, etc etc. Since I work in a lab facility where they work on making processed foods safe, and they have listeria and botulinum toxins in labs here, I suspect I’m in more danger from the return to office mandate than my bamboo cutting boards.Comment
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Wood has a ph that is not hospitable for bacteria. I wash my wood boards in foamy soap like Dawn. I do use plastic boards that are susceptible to harboring bacteria but I wash them on the high heat cycle of my dishwasher. So far, nobody has gotten food sickness in my house. Been cooking this way for 50+ years.
I would never use my fine edge knives on a metal board. The advertisements that say the titanium doesn't injure your knife blades are just plain crazy. Wood and soft plastic bend your edges and require honing and edge straightening on a regular basis on a hone or steel. What would hard titanium do?Comment
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If you're that worried about it, get some disposable paper cutting boards.Comment
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I use the cheap plastic boards for poultry and wash then in the dishwasher. Everything else is on wood. I wash them with hot soapy water, usually dawn, and dry them with paper towels. Every so often I treat them with a board wax. Works for meComment
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Titanium cutting boards look like a solution in search of a problem.Comment
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