Cutlery Reviews

Bamboo cutting boards seem to be a bit of a craze and a lot of places are really pushing it as the perfect material and perfect cutting board. Although I would agree that Bamboo is a very good material, I would hardly say that it is the "perfect" one. All materials have it's pros and cons. If I were to rank them, I'd say - Maple Wood (not all woods are created equal!), Plastic/Poly, Bamboo, Glass/Granite. Why?

Wood.
You want one at least 1" thick, preferrably at least 1.5" thick. This gives it enough thickness to prevent warping, cracking and breaking. It also will give you good "shock absorption factor" - making cutting and pounding on it a lot less jarring and tiring for you. Wood has natural anti-bacterial properties. It's natural, traditional, beautiful, and the best material for your good knives to be cutting on. The cons is that you need to know how to care for wood, you need to oil it, it's not dishwasher safe, it can be heavy.

Plastic/Poly.
The pros are that they are usually dish-washer safe, they are easy to disinfect when in like-new condition. They come in different colors, so you can color coordinate different foods to different boards to prevent cross-contamination. They are thin, lighter, easy to clean and store. The cons are they must be replaced when badly knife scarred because those knife scars will house millions of bacteria. Scrubbing the board will not get to those bacteria for the same reasons why brushing your teeth does not get the stuff between your teeth. Soaking it in bleach will not get to the bacteria because of the vacuum effect - the same concept illustrated when you stick a straw into blue colored water, plug up the top to create a vacuum, then move the straw into another container filled with red colored water. Just as long as you maintain that vacuum, the liquid in the red water will never mix with the blue in the straw unless if there was some way for you to force that red water into the straw as well.

Bamboo.
First off, bamboo is not wood, it's a grass - so no, it does not share the same properties as wood. Bamboo is 16% harder than Maple. The Amazon Description says "The hard surface means fewer nicks and slices that harbor bacteria." Harder is not better. Oak is harder than Maple, but it's not as good because it has bigger pores. Glass and Granite is harder than Maple, but it's the worst thing for your knife to be cutting against. Harder may sound good at first, but on second thought, it dulls your knives and has no shock absorption. I would treat Bamboo the same as Plastic/Poly when it comes to bacteria - replace it after it's badly knife scarred. Bamboo is more abundant than Maple trees though - all the claims of it being more environmentally friendly are valid. It's also available in attractive packages. Bamboo has less of a tendency to warp because it doesn't expand/contract from heat as much as wood does. But it has more tendency to crack, splinter, and for the glues to fail - this is because of how it's made. It's many, many pieces of a grass product all glued together - not like wood which is several "chunks" glued together. Bamboo is cheaper than wood though, so if you are on a budget and are looking for a lighter weight, wood-like cutting board, you'd want to look at these bamboo boards. Bamboo is not dishwasher safe, unless if it's extremely sealed, it's still a natural product and therefore should be hand-washed and could benefit with oilings to prevent it from drying out.

Glass/Granite.
I would not recommend anyone cutting on boards made of these materials. The have no shock absorption, making them jarring and tiring to cut on and they'll dull your knives. Save these material for serving trays or the like.

Now this particular bamboo cutting board is a good average size. Measuring in at 12" x 18" x �" (I don't know why the Amazon description has the dimensions listed otherwise) I would say it's a good "Medium" sized board. It's probably a good average size board for prepping meals for 1-2 people. If you cook a lot though and are looking for a Main board, you might want to get something larger. The rectangular shape is ideal if you like to chop and move the finished product off to the side to chop some more. I do this all the time, and that's a reason I like a larger board because otherwise, I'd have to dirty up a bunch of little prep bowls to hold all my ingredients in while I'm chopping. It has a groove built in, this groove is designed to catch juices. I don't see a real need for grooves, I have my cutting board right next to the sink, and in the rare occasions that too much "juice" accumulates, I just tip my cutting board and let the juices run off the board and into the sink. The only time I think grooves are necessary is if it's on a Carving Board. But if you carve meats a lot and could use the help of grooves - but also want something that doubles as a plain cutting board - here you go! You can also flip this board over and use the other side as a cutting board without grooves. The reason why I talk about the grooves is that you need to realize that the built in grooves means it cuts down on the useable "chopping space" - but since you can always just flip it over, it should be fine for this case.

This board sells for $30 regularly elsewhere. So why deceive your customers by claiming it's on sale?

This cutting board is a vast improvement over the previous bread board we were used to. The wooden board is made of thick, sturdy wood and the aluminum crumb tray is more than sufficient to support the board and catch crumbs. This is a cutting board that will hold up to years of use.

As a hobby chef who loves to use only the best, I am truly impressed with these knives. I have all of them and don't use anything else anymore. Stays sharp longer than others too. I am giving them as Christmas presents to everone who loves to be in the kitchen!