Cutting Boards

End grain means the knife goes between the wood fibres rather than across them, so the board closes behind the blade and keeps the edge longer. Teak carries enough of its own oil to resist water, and a board that eventually looks tired is sanded flat and re-oiled rather than replaced.

• End grain teak, closes behind the knife
• Juice groove round the edge
• Sand and re-oil instead of replacing
• Thick enough to take a millimetre off and not notice
• Teak's own oil content resists water

Boos has been gluing up hard maple in Effingham, Illinois since 1887, and this is the plain reversible board from that line. Maple is hard enough to resist scoring and soft enough not to blunt a knife, which is the whole reason butchers have used it for a century and a half.

• Hard rock maple, edge grain
• Made in Effingham, Illinois since 1887
• Reversible, no juice groove to limit the surface
• Sand and re-oil instead of replacing
• Thick enough not to warp

FSC-certified teak's natural oils make it far more moisture- and crack- resistant than the maple boards it competes with, which is why America's Test Kitchen has named it the best wood cutting board every year since 2013. It's reversible, ships pre-oiled, and, unlike plastic boards, can be sanded and re-oiled indefinitely instead of replaced.

• FSC-certified sustainably harvested teak
• Reversible edge-grain construction
• Naturally moisture- and crack-resistant
• Gentle on knife edges
• Pre-oiled, ready to use

The same teak with a channel routed round the edge, which is the difference between carving a roast on a board and carving it on the worktop. A groove is also the first place a cheap board splits, and on a single slab of oiled teak there is no glue line for it to open along.

• Juice groove routed into the slab
• Edge grain teak
• Reversible, flat face on the back
• Re-oiled rather than replaced

Paper composite rather than wood, which sounds like a downgrade and is the reason this one goes in the dishwasher and comes out flat. There is no glue line to fail and no grain to lift, so the failure mode that ends a wooden board does not exist here.

• Paper composite, dishwasher safe
• No glue line and no grain to lift
• Made in Wisconsin
• Develops a patina rather than scoring
• Thin and light enough to use as a serving board

A sheet of food grade stainless with the edges folded under, which makes it the one surface in this category that nothing can get into: no grain to open, no pores to hold raw chicken, and no warping however hot the pan set on it. Read the caution in the highlights before buying, because steel is harder than any knife edge and this is a preparation surface rather than a chopping block.

• Food grade stainless, 19.6 inches square
• Folded edges, no seam and no grain
• For dough, pastry, raw meat and hot pans
• Will dull a good knife faster than wood
• Dishwasher safe, reversible