Hard plastic, ceramic, and glass cutting boards will dull your sharp knives within a few cutting strokes. We suggest using wood or bamboo cutting boards. We also suggest that you clean them properly.
Proper Care and Handling of Cutting Boards- Regardless of the type of cutting board that you have, there are two important steps in proper cleaning.
Wash with warm, soapy water. Scrub with a brush to clean the cuts and scratches on the wood or plastic.
Sanitize with bleach solution (or use a dishwasher if you use a plastic cutting board). Use 1 tsp. bleach per quart of water. Bleach solution will NOT be effective unless the cutting board is washed with soap and rinsed first.
Do not put your kitchen knives in dishwashers, even if the manufacture states that they are dishwasher safe. No kitchen knife is dishwasher safe.
1. Dishwasher detergent is highly caustic, it will eat fine edges and put rust spots on even stainless steels.
2. High heat is absorbed at different rates in wood, plastic, and steel causing handles to pop, pull, destroy wood, and dislocate, discolor handles.
3. The violent wash and rinse cycles will cause vibration that will dull all edges.
A sharpening steel can ruin your knives.
Sharpening steels need clean straight sharpening grooves to properly straighten edges. If your steel is old, dirty, or has chips and cuts across the grooves it will do more harm than good. Actually the term "sharpening steel" is generally a misnomer, steels do not do much sharpening, they do straighten existing edges but do not remove enough metal to actually sharpen. A very dull knife will be a pretty dull knife after steeling an edge. You have to occasionally recut the burr and edge bevel to keep a knife in tip top cutting shape.
