Do Glass or Acrylic Chopping Boards Dull Knives?

Knife Edges

• The cutting edge of a knife dulls by abrasion, deforming or chipping. Knives with a softer temper resist chipping, but the cutting edge wears away slowly, becoming rounded during use. When run over bone or glass, a knife edge often turns. Stroking this type of blade on a honing steel straightens or resets the cutting edge, restoring sharpness without grinding a new surface. Some modern knives made of especially hard steel or ceramic composites outperform older knife styles when slicing, but the thin edges blunt or chip quickly on hard surfaces such as glass or bone. Using an expensive knife on glass or acrylic could immediately damage the blade.

Cutting Boards

• Traditional hardwood cutting boards hold up to years of hard use and preserve a knife's edge by slightly yielding to the blade. When fibers in the wood part, the edge of the blade slides through with little damage. Cuts in the wood can harbor bacteria, but some research shows that the trapped debris presents few health hazards. A cutting board too hard to scar offers fewer hiding places for bacteria, but dulls a knife much faster than a softer board. European and American knives reset easily with a honing steel, but hard cutting boards can ruin the edges of harder Asian cutlery.

Acrylic

• Acrylic plastic weighs about half as much as glass, but holds up to impact stress 17 times as forceful, according to San Diego Plastics, Inc. Clear, flexible acrylic substitutes for window glass in many architectural applications. Thick acrylic sheets can hold up to the impact of bullets. Tools designed to cut metal will also cut acrylic, but kitchen-knife steel lacks both the shape and the hardness to cut these materials. The strong point of a knife can score a line across acrylic, but a knife's thin cutting edge blunts or deforms when run across the board.

Sanitation

• A cutting board soft enough to preserve the edge of a knife can increase chances of food poisoning. Any cutting board with cutting scars can harbor salmonella and other dangerous pathogens, according to the University of Missouri Extension. If a wooden or plastic cutting board has cuts too deep to clean, throw the board away. Glass or acrylic boards do more damage to knife blades, but make a safer choice for cutting meat, fish and poultry. A disinfectant made from 2 teaspoons of chlorine bleach and 1 quart of water sanitizes glass, plastic or wooden boards; plain soap and water, though, won't kill bacteria.