Wooden Chopping Boards
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The most widely used grade of stainless steel for kitchenware is 304, it's very low carbon (0.08% max) and cannot be heat treated, hardness is typically 70 Rockwell B.
This afternoon I was *very* glad that I'd taken the time yesterday to sharpen my two most-used kitchen knives.
Butternut squash is a bugger to cut with a butter knife.
But still has 13% chromium. I use 304 for pins, tube and bolsters... Good corrosion resistance... but not soft.
304 is not soft compared to brass or copper, but it's still soft compared to something like hardened and tempered 12C27.
As I understand it (and I only have an elementary knowledge of steel metallurgy), chromium in alloy steels gives harness and wear resistance when it forms carbides, which doesn't happen in 304. What chromium does in 304 and 316 is form a very corrosion-resistant of chromium oxide on the surface of the steel.
70 Rockwell B doesn't even have an equivalent on the Rockwell C scale; 55 Rockwell C would be the equivalent of 120 Rockwell B.
Well, obviously its not going to be as hard as hardened steel, but for an unhardened steel, its not soft and work hardens a fair bit. (stamping out sinks and draining boards for example). Take mild carbon steel for example... 304 is much harder than that. The point i was making originally, is that it doesn't make a good cutting board, with regards to maintaining a good edge on a knife.. Would you disagree with that??
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A linky is better than explaining it, but to say there are various recipes where the one I use is with similarity to the one listed here being a mixture of mostly beeswax and coconut oil
Homemade spoon butter recipe and why
Suffice to sday anything wooden in my kitchen gets ' buttered ' from time to time, to say the application also slightly brings out grain patterns as well as sort of waterproofing
Not a bad combo to be fair. Won't polymerise, but the beeswax slows down the degradation of the coconut... Get a good few years from each coat. Food safe... That'll work.
Titanium chopping boards are becoming very popular, have a look, very interesting from a non contamination and knife protection perspective
The only interesting thing is how stupid one has to be to buy such a thing!
I speak from experience. Years ago I turned off all critical thinking and bought my dad a glass cutting board because his cheap plastic ones were scored, stained, verminous looking things and we wanted “hygienic”. I didn’t check the sharpness of his kitchen knives for a couple of months, and was horrified when I did. Predictably that hard glass board had destroyed the edges on everything used on it. Fortunately he hadn’t used his one nice Japanese santoku on it, but everything else
Blades can be blunted on even softish (paulownia) wood boards. Even 58HRC 12C27 (harder than most cheaper kitchen knives). My dad manages this regularly! Bamboo boards will be worse, because the bamboo is so hard, never mind the glue. Metal boards will be worse still.
Thing is though, I only use the metal as the clean, and cleanable, surface that I lay meat upon to cut it up. I don't try, indeed I try hard not to, cut into the metal. I cut the meat.
You don't cut up the serving dish when you carve a chicken, why should you cut hard enough to cut into metal ?
Control, be aware, think about what you're doing.....and kitchen scissors are good things.
It's like all those folks who won't use a grater or a mandolin because they carve up their fingers.....don't do that, grate/slice the food, not yourself !
You don't cut up the serving dish when you carve a chicken, why should you cut hard enough to cut into metal ?
Control, be aware, think about what you're doing.....and kitchen scissors are good things.
It's like all those folks who won't use a grater or a mandolin because they carve up their fingers.....don't do that, grate/slice the food, not yourself !
I made this Ash cutting board/platter years ago, but these days I just use my Kupilka plate.
I remember my grandmother used to have only one knife she used for vegetables and meat (apart from a carving knife and fork for slicing), it was a round ended faux ivory handled table knife that she’d sharpened so often with a pull-through, it had an upside down “smile” in the blade, she had actually been some sort of domestic service/ science finishing school for future housewives in her youth just before WW1 which surprises me that she used to make do with that, it certainly wasn’t a matter of money, as she was very well off.That is so true. I grew up in households where the only 'big' knife was the bread knife. The law had said that no one had to possess a knife bigger than would be necessary to cut their meat at their plate...and we got good at using wee knives.
The neatest butcher I know takes apart a deer with a knife no longer than his forefinger, and an axe to seperate the ribs from the spine, everything else he uses that wee knife.
Bread knife apart the longest knife I use is about 5" blade length.
My Italian near as daughter in law despairs and looks around desperately hoping I have bigger ones somewhere
I even dice onions with a wee knife.....and it's not that sharp. I hold the onion in my hands and cut it up, I do the same with pretty much every vegetable bar turnip which is too damned big and hard.
You don't need a razor sharp knife in the kitchen for food prep, pretty much every housewife in the land knows that. Sharp enough to do, will do. No need to be constantly worrying about a razor lying about the worktop.....but then, what do I know ?
I'm just a housewife
Today I've made vegetable broth (tatties, onions, leeks, carrots, celery, mushrooms etc.,) and apple turnovers....all peeled and cut with one wee knife with a blade less than three inches long. Quick, neat and tidy. No nicks or cuts.
Think you need to look at this https://titaniumchoppingboard.co.uk/do-titanium-chopping-boards-blunt-knives-discover-the-truth/
The only interesting thing is how stupid one has to be to buy such a thing!
I speak from experience. Years ago I turned off all critical thinking and bought my dad a glass cutting board because his cheap plastic ones were scored, stained, verminous looking things and we wanted “hygienic”. I didn’t check the sharpness of his kitchen knives for a couple of months, and was horrified when I did. Predictably that hard glass board had destroyed the edges on everything used on it. Fortunately he hadn’t used his one nice Japanese santoku on it, but everything else
Blades can be blunted on even softish (paulownia) wood boards. Even 58HRC 12C27 (harder than most cheaper kitchen knives). My dad manages this regularly! Bamboo boards will be worse, because the bamboo is so hard, never mind the glue. Metal boards will be worse still.
Sorry, but I don’t buy it (no pun intended). Written (very glibly) by the very people who are trying to flog the boards. Just because they and the “British people”, whoever they might be, say it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true. Personally, I’ll stick with my nice wooden boards, tried and tested by me, easy to maintain, any scratches that do appear, not that they do, can be easily sanded off.
Unbiased test done here where Titanium is shown as the worst material *by far* out of all available options. Significantly worse than even stainless steel.
I looked, I didn’t need to, but it was funny to read the infomercial from the people selling the boards pretending to be independent and see the way they have to phrase things to avoid getting sued for false advertising while creating the impression they said them.
For example, they say titanium is more “gentle” than steel or glass, which may be true, although I have doubts, but hardly bragging material. Then show a picture with wood. Very manipulative throughout.
But don’t take my word for it. Everyone can spend money anything that they fancy. We all buy stuff that we just fancy having for the wow factor and people are daft for even the word “titanium”.
I'll give them their dues... Hygiene, Durability and Maintenance... I'd agree, they are are probably the better out of the ones mentioned... But Knife Sharpness and Eco Friendliness. I would strongly disagree with.
They ones it may come out on top of though, arent what make a cutting board good. They WILL blunt your knife in no time... Which makes them about as much use as a chocolate fire guard.
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…….. unless you have the kind of knife that you sharpen each time you use it.
Many of us have.
Just saying ………
On the other hand, while there is no way that I’d use a metal chopping board, particularly for literal chopping, I DO use both ceramic and stainless steel carving dishes. A china plate is going to have a similar effect to a metal one.
Many of us have.
Just saying ………
On the other hand, while there is no way that I’d use a metal chopping board, particularly for literal chopping, I DO use both ceramic and stainless steel carving dishes. A china plate is going to have a similar effect to a metal one.
If you have a knife you sharpen each time you use it... one of 2 things spring to mind (edit, well maybe 3)... Cheaper softer knife... or OCD... or both lol.
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