The 5 Best Cutting Boards of 2024 | Reviews by Wirecutter

Nov 08, 2024

By Michael Sullivan

Michael Sullivan is a writer covering kitchen equipment and tableware. He has broken more than a hundred drinking glasses to find the most durable.

We have new wood board picks, including the Jones Cutting Board LLC 20x14x1.5 Inch Maple End Grain Cutting Board and the The Boardsmith Maple End Grain Butcher Cutting Board.

A beautiful wood cutting board can boost your ego when it elicits “oohs” and “aahs” from anyone who spots it on your kitchen counter. But aside from its handsome looks, wood is prized for being gentler on knife edges and nicer to chop on than plastic. The downside: It isn’t cheap, and it’s high-maintenance.

But if you can handle oiling and waxing it often, we think the Jones Cutting Boards Maple End Grain Cutting Board will give you a big return on your investment. We’ve tested over 40 boards since 2015, slicing and dicing mountains of produce in that time, and the Jones cutting board has proven itself to be a workhorse in our tests. In addition to providing ample space to prepare food, its craftsmanship is a sight to behold—with proper care, it should last for decades.

If you want a cheaper, low-maintenance option, or a separate board for raw proteins, get a plastic board. We recommend the OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board, which has grippy edges and a juice groove.

This beautifully made end-grain cutting board is gentle on knife edges. Cut marks self-healed over time, and it stained far less than many other wood boards we tested.

This gorgeous end-grain maple board is half an inch thicker than the Jones board and has more-durable feet.

This board is smaller and thinner than our wood other picks, and its craftsmanship isn’t as refined. But it’s an affordable wood board that’s ideal for simple cutting tasks and/or tight spaces.

The OXO board resists warping, staining, and odors better than the other plastic boards we tested. It’s harder on knife edges, but its rubber feet keep it stationary, and the juice groove does an excellent job collecting liquids.

This plastic board is softer than the OXO, so it won’t dull your knives as quickly. It lacks a juice groove, but its grippy texture helps keep it in place while chopping.

To see how our recommended cutting boards hold up day to day, we’ve been testing them in our home kitchens.

We’ve tested over 30 boards made from various materials, including wood, plastic, composite, and rubber; we like wood and plastic best.

Small boards can feel cramped. We primarily looked for wood boards that were at least 1.5 inches thick, which are more durable.

We looked for boards with the option to add a juice groove on one side, to catch meat drippings or the juice from a ripe, plump tomato.

This beautifully made end-grain cutting board is gentle on knife edges. Cut marks self-healed over time, and it stained far less than many other wood boards we tested.

The Jones Cutting Boards Maple End Grain Cutting Board is our favorite wood board. Handcrafted in rural Pennsylvania by a mom-and-pop company, this 20-by-14-by-1.5-inch board is the ideal size and weight for home use. It comes with finger grooves on the sides for easy lifting, but it can be customized further to suit your needs—you can add feet (which we recommend), a juice groove, and/or custom engravings.

The Jones board stained less than other boards in our tests, and knife marks self-healed. It’s made from domestic maple, which is durable and sustainably sourced. Though expensive, we think this board is fairly priced considering its superior craftsmanship—it still costs less than others of equivalent quality. If well cared for and oiled and waxed regularly, it should last for decades.

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This gorgeous end-grain maple board is half an inch thicker than the Jones board and has more-durable feet.

If you prefer a thicker board, we recommend The Boardsmith Maple End Grain Butcher Cutting Board. Handmade from sustainably harvested (FSC certified) premium-grade domestic maple wood by a family-owned business in Texas, this end-grain board is a pleasure to chop on. Attractive feet that are sturdier than those you can get for the Jones board are included in the price. You can add finger grooves, a juice groove, or custom engravings for additional costs.

The board measures 12 by 18 by 2 inches, which is great if you’re tight on counter space. It also comes in two larger sizes, and a smaller and thinner 12-by-18-by-1.375-inch board. This is a beautifully crafted heirloom piece that should last for decades if well cared for.

This board is smaller and thinner than our wood other picks, and its craftsmanship isn’t as refined. But it’s an affordable wood board that’s ideal for simple cutting tasks and/or tight spaces.

If our other wood cutting board picks are too large for your space or you’re looking for a less expensive option, consider the Ironwood Gourmet 28218 Square Charleston End Grain Chef's Board. The 14-inch-by-14-inch board doesn’t boast the fine craftsmanship of our other picks and is 0.75 inch thinner, but it’s decent for the price, suitable (albeit much more cramped) for many chopping tasks, and a nice size for serving cheese or charcuterie.

Unlike our other wood board picks, it lacks a handle groove and a juice groove to catch drippings. It also doesn’t have feet, making it more prone to warping. It has foam stick-on pads on one side of the board that will eventually wear off (though this won’t affect the board’s performance). As with all wood boards, you’ll need to oil and wax it often.

It isn’t a domestic wood and doesn’t come with any third-party certifications, such as those from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which ensures the wood is responsibly harvested.

The OXO board resists warping, staining, and odors better than the other plastic boards we tested. It’s harder on knife edges, but its rubber feet keep it stationary, and the juice groove does an excellent job collecting liquids.

The OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board is large enough for most chopping and carving tasks, easy to clean, and designed with rubber feet to prevent slippage. And we were impressed with how effective the juice groove was at holding liquid. We also like a smaller version of this board, the 10.39-inch-by-14.78-inch OXO Good Grips Utility Cutting Board. It fits in most dishwashers and is great for simple tasks like slicing an apple or chopping a carrot.

This plastic board is softer than the OXO, so it won’t dull your knives as quickly. It lacks a juice groove, but its grippy texture helps keep it in place while chopping.

The Tenryo Hi-Soft Cutting Board is pricier than the OXO, but it’s a quieter surface when chopping and arguably nicer looking. It’s made of softer polyvinyl acetate, so it’s gentler on knife edges too. It lacks the OXO’s grippy feet to keep it stable, but its rubbery texture prevents it from sliding around as much as most other hard, slick plastic options we tested (though we still recommend placing a towel underneath). Unlike the OXO, the Tenryo board doesn’t have a juice groove to catch any runaway liquids.

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I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering kitchen equipment and tabletop items. Since 2016 I’ve tested all kinds of products from toaster ovens to drinking glasses. I’ve used an array of cutting boards in both educational and professional settings.

For this guide:

A cutting board is essential for any kitchen, and we recommend having at least two: one for preparing raw meat, poultry, and seafood; the other for vegetables, fruits, or cooked foods. This reduces the risk of cross-contamination and is handy when preparing food for a crowd. But it’s a common misconception that you should only use plastic boards for raw meat.

Many types of wood have antimicrobial properties and the USDA says wood or plastic boards may be used to prep raw proteins (though we disagree with their advice to sanitize a wood board with a bleach solution or put it in the dishwasher, which can damage the board—a good scrub with hot soapy water is sufficient for cleaning).

We only recommend plastic and wood boards. Other materials like bamboo and composite are popular alternatives to plastic because they're similarly lightweight, but they're very hard on knife edges (bamboo, though wood-like, is high in silica).

Whether you choose wood, plastic, or one of each is a matter of preference. Here’s how the two materials compare:

Wood:

Plastic:

Some research suggests using plastic boards may increase your exposure to microplastics, which studies have shown could be linked to health issues. But Joseph Zagorski, PhD, a toxicologist at the Center for Research on Ingredient Safety at Michigan State University, told us, “the adverse effects of microplastics in our diet remain unclear. Most studies involve long exposure times and substantially larger amounts of microplastic particles than are typically found in food products.” If you use a wood cutting board to do most of your food prep and a separate plastic board for raw proteins, the risks seem low from our perspective.

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Based on interviews with experts and our own testing since 2015, we look for these important qualities in wood or plastic boards:

In wood boards specifically, we also look for the following:

That said, we included boards made of non-domestic acacia to provide some affordable wood options. But according to Doug Gardner, professor of Forest Operations, Bioproducts and Bioenergy at University of Maine, the environmental impact of non-domestic woods is greater, since it must be shipped from overseas. He told us that wood sourced from rainforest equator countries could also have potential issues related to deforestation.

Maple is hard enough to hold up to some abuse in your kitchen, but it’s still soft enough so as not to dull your knives quickly. It's a plentiful wood in the US, and its closed-pore structure makes it an excellent material for cutting boards. It’s also more affordable than many other domestic woods, such as walnut or cherry.

We also only tested boards from one type of wood since some experts said mixing wood types could potentially create issues caused by varying dimensional shrinkage.

We currently don’t recommend edge-grain boards, which tend to be harder on knife blades, don’t self-heal as well, and, in our experience, have more issues with cracking (though we may test others in the future).

To find the most durable, useful boards, we conducted the following tests:

We measured each board to see if they fit in a standard dishwasher, semi-standard (15-by-20-inch) sink, and a divided sink.

We noted whether the boards stained or retained odors after leaving beet juice and chopped garlic on each one for 30 minutes. As expected, lighter-grained woods, such as maple, were more prone to stains than darker woods like walnut.

We washed all of the cutting boards by hand and cleaned the plastic boards in the dishwasher, too. We used the delicate/econo setting and pulled them out during the drying cycle to keep the boards from warping.

We measured the amount of liquid the juice grooves could hold, and we chopped carrots, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, and sliced a variety of citrus, noting the sound and feel of the boards.

Ultimately, how good your knife feels while chopping is a better guide to picking out a good cutting board than how sharp your blade stays, since a knife’s edge is affected by many factors beyond the hardness of the wood: acids, interactions with different foods, frequency of use, and the overall treatment and quality of your knives.

We tested to see how well the boards “self-healed,” paying attention to how they looked after heavy knife use, and if serrated knife marks from slicing bread closed up with time. We also checked how stable the boards were, and whether they slipped during chopping with and without a towel placed underneath.

I took the best-performing boards home and used them for several weeks in my small apartment kitchen, for a real-world evaluation. We’ll continue testing our picks long-term and update this guide accordingly based on how they perform.

This beautifully made end-grain cutting board is gentle on knife edges. Cut marks self-healed over time, and it stained far less than many other wood boards we tested.

The Jones Cutting Boards 20x14x1.5 Inch Maple End Grain Cutting Board was among the best wood boards we tested. This gorgeous maple board checks all of the boxes. At around $185 at the time of publication (which includes an additional cost for feet, which we recommend adding), it isn’t cheap, but it’s much less expensive than many other boards of similar quality. With proper care and maintenance it should last for decades—we’re confident it’s worth the price.

It’s beautifully constructed. The Jones board is made of end-grain maple so it’s more forgiving on your knives. The joints are tight and the board is finely sanded—even the juice and handle grooves (if you choose to add them) are sanded to a smooth finish, which is a step most other manufacturers tend to skip.

It’s customizable. The board comes with finger grooves on the sides, but you have the option to add feet, a juice groove, and/or personalized engravings to the board (such as names or custom logos) for added costs.

Martin Jones, the co-owner of Jones Cutting Boards, told us that adding feet will prevent most issues with warpage, since they elevate the board off of a damp counter (adding feet costs $10). Note: The board measures 1.375 inches high with feet, which shorter cooks may prefer over the taller height of The Boardsmith board we recommend (which is 2.75 inches high with feet).

It has a generous cutting surface and comes in multiple sizes. The 14-by-20-by-1.5-inch board we recommend is an ideal size for chopping lots of produce, and we think it’s a manageable weight at 9.9 pounds. If you want a smaller, lighter board, we’d recommend getting the 12-by-16-by-1.5-inch version.

The company also sells two larger boards—22 by 16 by 2 inches and 24 by 18 by 2.25 inches—but since they’re thicker, they’ll add more height to your cutting surface. They’re also heavier and more cumbersome to move. But they’re a pleasure to chop on and look spectacular on a kitchen counter.

It arrived well-oiled and didn’t warp in our tests. Many boards we tested were bone-dry right out of the box, but the Jones board came well oiled and wrapped in plastic to keep it sufficiently conditioned in transit.

You’ll still need to oil and wax it after receiving it (and regularly thereafter), but the fact that it arrived in such good condition is another indication of the company’s attention to detail. It was also one of the few wood boards that didn’t warp in our tests.

Stains and odors were minimal. Shredded beets didn’t cause the board to stain much in our tests, probably because it was so well-oiled, which prevented the juice from penetrating deeply. Some stains are inevitable, but we were surprised how well the Jones board resisted them.

The board is made from domestic maple wood. According to experts, it’s a pretty safe bet that domestic wood has been responsibly sourced. Jones Cutting Boards gets their lumber from multiple locations—one has an FSC certification, and the other uses Appalachian hardwood that conforms to a growth and removal rate of 2.4%, which is increasing annually. All of their boards are constructed in rural Pennsylvania.

It comes with a one-year warranty. That’s the longest warranty of any of our wood board picks. It covers manufacturing defects and workmanship (but not mistreatment after purchasing).

It takes about two weeks to receive your board. We think that’s more than reasonable considering its high-quality construction and the fact that it’s handmade to order. It also ships for free in the contiguous 48 states (shipping to Alaska and Hawaii costs $28 for medium boards and $35 for large boards).

You’ll have to oil and wax it regularly. All wood boards need to be oiled and waxed often and the Jones board is no exception.

The feet aren’t as durable as those on our Boardsmith pick. The feet on the Boardsmith model nest inside a wooden escutcheon, which feels more substantial.

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This gorgeous end-grain maple board is half an inch thicker than the Jones board and has more-durable feet.

If you want a thicker, more durable board with higher-quality feet than our main pick, we recommend the 18-by-12-by-2-inch Boardsmith Maple End Grain Butcher Cutting Board (it’s available in other sizes, too). This board is pricier than the Jones board, but feet are included (not an add-on), and it shares the same level of craftsmanship. We also love that you have the option to add a juice groove to the underside of the board, rather than the top, so you can just flip it over for the occasional carving task.

The Boardsmith board has a reddish hue (whereas the Jones board skews brown), and the exposed wood ends have an attractive arrangement that’s quite eye-catching. If you sign up for The Boardsmith newsletter, they’ll take $25 off your first purchase.

It’s thicker than the Jones board. The Boardsmith board is half an inch thicker than the Jones board, which taller cooks may prefer, since it raises the cutting surface higher off the counter (with the addition of feet, the board is 2.75 inches high, whereas the Jones board is 1.75 inches high with feet). Consider getting anti-fatigue mats if you need a boost.

It’s well constructed and customizable. Beyond its practicality, this board is a beauty. It’s finely sanded and features beveled edges. You can customize it by adding a juice groove, handle grooves, and custom engravings (you can also email the company to inquire about special requests).

The board comes with polyurethane feet included in the cost, and they’re nicer than those on the Jones board, since they nest inside a wooden escutcheon. You also have the option to purchase without them, though John Loftis, owner of The Boardsmith, highly recommends the feet since they help prevent warpage.

Finger grooves also aren’t necessary if you get the board with feet, since there’s plenty of room to slide your fingers under it.

It has one unique feature we love: It’s the only board we’ve tested that gives you the option to add a juice groove to the underside of the board (the side with feet). Since most people don’t need a juice groove for daily use, adding it to the bottom of the board keeps the top side flat, which is easier to clean and slide ingredients off of. When you need the juice groove, simply flip the board over—the feet are low enough so as not to be in your way while carving a chicken or slicing a roast.

It’s available in other sizes. The 18-by-12-by-2-inch board, which weighs 11 pounds, is on the smaller side, but it still provides ample space for chopping several ingredients at once. If you have the space (and the arm strength) or want a size big enough for carving a roasted turkey, you may want to move up to the 16-by-22-by-2-inch board, which weighs 17.5 pounds. Though it provided more surface area for preparing ingredients, it was more cumbersome for some of our testers to move around the kitchen.

The company also sells a whopping 18-by-24-by-2-inch board, which would be more appropriate for large kitchen islands, and a small 9-by-12-by-1.375-inch board for simple cutting tasks, like slicing an apple.

It arrived well-oiled. Like the Jones board, The Boardsmith model arrived sufficiently oiled and required less oil than most others we tested. But it will still need to be oiled and waxed regularly over the course of its lifetime.

The wood is sustainably sourced. According to The Boardsmith, they use FAS wood (first- and second-grade wood, the highest grade lumber available) and source it from sawmills that use sustainable forestry practices. All of their wood boards are handmade in Frisco, Texas.

It comes with a 60-day warranty. The Boardsmith warranty covers defects in material and workmanship (the Jones board comes with a one-year warranty).

A different-size board warped but flattened in our tests. The larger, 16-by-22-by-2-inch board (without feet) warped within the first week after unboxing. This was likely caused by an extreme shift in humidity. The good news: After generously oiling the board and laying it flat on a wire shelf it flattened, and we had no further issues with warping. Many other boards warped in our tests but remained permanently damaged, so we recommend getting your board with feet to help prevent this issue.

It takes two to three weeks to receive your board. Since each board is made to order, it can take up to three weeks to receive it (our board took exactly three weeks). But we think that’s reasonable considering it’s handmade to order and very high quality.

This board is smaller and thinner than our wood other picks, and its craftsmanship isn’t as refined. But it’s an affordable wood board that’s ideal for simple cutting tasks and/or tight spaces.

The Ironwood Gourmet 28218 Square Charleston End Grain Chef's Board is the best wood board we’ve tested for under $70. It lacks the fine craftsmanship of our other wood board picks—it has rough patches that aren’t finely sanded—but we still think it’s decent for the price. It would be a suitable option if you want an affordable wood board specifically for raw proteins or for tackling smaller tasks.

It’s smaller than our other picks. Some people may actually prefer this board’s size—14 by 14 by 1.25 inches—for simple tasks, like slicing an apple or cutting cheese. If you have a small kitchen or a tiny sink, this size may be the most suitable option.

The Ironwood board is available in several other sizes, but the only one we’d recommend is the larger 20-by-14-by-1.25-inch model.

Another version, which is 20 by 14 by 1.5 inches, has a juice groove on both sides of the board, but one side has “Ironwood” engraved in the center, so we don’t recommend it. A thicker board, measuring 20 by 14 by 2.75 inches (priced at $130 at the time of publication), would be more durable, but if you can spend a bit more, we think you're better off getting the Jones board. The rest of the options are less than 1.25 inches thick, which we don’t recommend because they’ll be less durable.

It ships faster than our other wood board picks. Since this board isn’t made to order, you’ll receive it much faster. But we still think that our other wood board picks are worth the wait, since their quality is noticeably better.

It stains less than our other wood picks. Since acacia wood is darker than maple, beet stains weren’t as noticeable.

But the wood doesn’t self-heal as well. Serrated knife marks were more visible and didn’t close up as well as on the maple boards we recommend.

It’s inexpensive. Most acacia wood boards cost less than domestic wood boards, and the Ironwood board was among the least expensive ones we tested.

But it lacks the fine craftsmanship of our other picks. When running your hand over this board, you’ll feel rough patches, unlike our other wood picks, which are sanded to a perfectly smooth finish. This board can’t be customized, and it has thin foam feet stuck onto the bottom of the board that will eventually deteriorate. It won’t prevent you from using the board, but it’s something to consider before you buy.

It’s harder on knife edges. Since Acacia has nearly 1,000 species, it’s difficult to categorize a blanket hardness of this wood genus. But many species are much harder than the maple boards we recommend, so this board may dull your knives faster.

It lacks third-party certifications. The Ironwood cutting board isn’t certified by any third-party organizations, such the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which help ensure that wood is sustainably harvested.

And it comes with only a 30-day return policy. Ironwood Gourmet will replace defective or damaged items up to 30 days after purchasing. (The Boardsmith board has a 60-day warranty, while the Jones board has a one-year warranty.)

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The OXO board resists warping, staining, and odors better than the other plastic boards we tested. It’s harder on knife edges, but its rubber feet keep it stationary, and the juice groove does an excellent job collecting liquids.

The OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board is the best plastic cutting board for chopping a lot of ingredients at once. Its approximately 14-by-21-inch size is large enough to comfortably chop several vegetables for mirepoix or carve a 12-pound turkey. It’s also durable, relatively lightweight, and stable.

It did an excellent job of resisting stains and odors. Beet stains and garlic smells washed right off the board when hand-washing. However, an older board we’ve been using in our test kitchen (which has some deep gouges) retained some light beet stains.

The OXO board provides ample space for chopping. We had plenty of room to chop and slice, even with several ingredients piled on the board. Also, its juice groove holds roughly half a cup of liquid, an impressive amount compared with other boards we tested.

It’s available in multiple sizes. Since this board is so large and may not fit in some dishwashers, we also recommend the roughly 10-by-15-inch OXO Good Grips Utility Cutting Board, 9-by-13-inch Everyday Cutting Board, and the mini 7-by-10.75-inch Prep Board. The latter two boards are best for simple tasks like slicing an apple or cutting lemon wedges, but not chopping a bunch of vegetables for meal prep.

This board is surprisingly thin and light for its size. We found it easy to maneuver and store, which is especially helpful if you have trouble lifting a heavy wood board.

If you’re a shorter cook, you may prefer this board over a wood one since it’s only about a half inch thick, and it won’t add much height to your prep surface.

The rubbery sides of the board keep it in place while chopping. That said, if you’re going to do a lot of chopping, we’d still recommend placing a towel underneath the board for added stability. If your counter is wet, the rubbery feet could lose their traction and cause the board to slide around; a towel will prevent slippage.

This board is harder and slicker than other plastic boards. Made of polypropylene, the board doesn’t feel as great under a knife as the Tenryo Hi-Soft Cutting Board we recommend. However, after several uses, the surface becomes scarred and allows for better traction, which keeps the blade from slipping.

The center of the board has a tendency to flex. Placing a towel under the board remedies the flexing issue. Our own testing saw an OXO board scar under hundreds of knife marks, but the same can be said for any plastic board.

The OXO board is also louder to cut on than our wood picks. This is especially true if you don’t have a towel or cushioned foam pad placed underneath it.

It’s not best when using a serrated knife. To avoid creating deep gouges in the OXO, we recommend using a wood board whenever using a serrated knife.

This plastic board is softer than the OXO, so it won’t dull your knives as quickly. It lacks a juice groove, but its grippy texture helps keep it in place while chopping.

The Tenryo Hi-Soft Cutting Board was the best-feeling plastic board we chopped on. Unlike most plastic boards, it looks great displayed on a counter, and it won’t dull your knives as fast as other boards made of harder plastics, but it’s pricey for a board that will still need to be replaced every few years.

It’s less noisy to chop on than the OXO board and better for your knives. The Tenryo board is thicker and made of softer polyvinyl acetate, which has a rubbery texture, making it the quietest plastic board we chopped on. It’s more forgiving on knife edges, too.

It’s nice looking. Most plastic boards aren’t known for their beauty, but we think the Tenryo’s simple design and straight edges make it less of an eyesore than many other plastic boards.

This board also “self-heals” better than the OXO board, so cut marks from chopping are less noticeable. But it still can’t handle a serrated knife well. Serrated knives will do a number on any plastic board, so we recommend cutting bread on a wood board.

The board remains stable while chopping. Due to the Tenryo’s grippy texture, it stayed stationary on a counter better than most other plastic boards we tested (besides the OXO), which tend to slide around while slicing and dicing. However, we think it could still benefit from a towel placed underneath.

It does a decent job resisting stains and odors. The Tenryo board does a good job resisting stains and odors, but not quite as well as the OXO. This is due to its softer texture, but the tradeoff is that it’s gentler on your knives.

It lacks a juice groove. Many testers liked having the option of a juice groove on one side of the board to catch the juices when carving a big roast or cutting a juicy watermelon.

It’s pricier than most other plastic boards. The Tenryo board costs about $50 for the 15.8 by 11.5-inch board, which is relatively expensive for something you’ll eventually need to replace. By comparison, the OXO Everyday Cutting Board, which measures 12.8 by 8.8 by 0.4 inches, costs less than half the price. But we think it’s worth the price if you don’t want to dull your knives as quickly.

It’s more sensitive to heat. To avoid warping or damaging the board, keep it away from a hot stove or boiling water. It’s dishwasher safe up to 158 degrees Fahrenheit (most dishwashers operate between 120 °F and 145 °F, sometimes going north of 150 °F, so refer to your dishwasher manual to be sure).

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If you want a plastic board under $20: Aside from the Tenryo Hi-Soft Cutting Board we recommend, the Choice Polyethylene Cutting Board (measuring 20 by 15 by 0.5-inch) felt the best under a knife compared with the other plastic boards we tested. It also comes in other sizes: 24 by 18 by 0.5 inches, 18 by 12 by 0.5 inches and 30 by 18 by 0.75 inches. It’s available in thicker sizes too and comes in a variety of colors, which can be helpful for avoiding cross-contamination. The Choice board lacks a juice groove and grippy sides to keep it stable, but it’s a great value.

If you want a midsize edge-grain walnut board: The Brooklyn Butcher Blocks Edge Grain Walnut board was a wonderfully dark and rich-looking board. It requires just as much oiling and waxing as other wood picks, but one woodworking expert told us walnut tends to warp less than other types of wood. However, like cherry, it’s one of the more expensive domestic wood boards you can buy.

If you want a midsize end-grain cherry board: The 12-by-18-inch Brooklyn Butcher Blocks End Grain Cherry offset bricklayer-style pattern looks lovely, it stayed in place, and slicing and dicing on this board felt good. After weeks of testing, this board looked almost untouched. That said, it still had not lost its beet stains after a few washings, and its sides tended to dry out more than those of other boards. If you’re willing to care for it, this expensive board is worth the price.

This is not a comprehensive list of everything we tested in previous iterations of this guide, just what’s still available.

The thick polyethylene Hay Chopping Board feels great under a knife and comes in a variety of fun colors, but it warped in the dishwasher and faded after we scrubbed it by hand.

The thin Material reBoard came warped right out of the box. It felt harder on knife edges than the OXO board in our tests and it has a large hole in one corner for hanging, which cuts down on usable board space.

The Thirteen Chefs Cutting Boards and the Cuttingboard.com Commercial Plastic Standard Cutting Board – ½″ slid around on a counter. Their textured surfaces were fine to chop on, but we liked our picks better.

The Tap Plastics HDPE Cutting Board is a good option if you need a plastic board cut to a specific size, say for an outside food prep area. But it slid around on the counter, even with a damp paper towel placed underneath.

The Williams Sonoma Synthetic Non-Slip Cutting Board has grippy sides like the OXO, but it was too small for most tasks.

The 14-by-17-inch Dexas Pastry Superboard has a roughed-up texture that keeps food from slipping, but it warped in our tests and slides around even with a damp towel underneath.

The Williams Sonoma Antibacterial Synthetic Cutting & Carving Board has a Microban-like bacterial protection baked into its plastic. It felt good under a knife, but its juice groove doesn’t hold as much liquid as the OXO.

The Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board with Juice Canal (15" by 20") was our wood board pick until 2024, but in recent years we’ve experienced numerous issues with it cracking. We initially prized this teak board for its low maintenance, but we’ve learned that, like bamboo, it has high levels of silica, which dulls knives faster and the wood’s oily nature can resist certain glues.

A Boos Block Maple Edge Grain Reversible Cutting Board was our wood board pick in 2015. It feels good under a knife, and counter slipping is almost nonexistent (thanks to the board’s 18-pound heft). But the board was extremely dry upon arrival and developed a small crack in the handle after our first year of use.

The JK Adams Professional End Grain Maple Board is a hefty, thick board, but it needed more oil than others we tested. It warped slightly after the first use and did not return completely flat. It also lacks the option to add a juice groove, handle grooves, and feet.

The Sonder LA Welton Cutting Board is a beautiful walnut board. Since the wood is so dark, it stained the least in our tests and it was well oiled upon arrival. However, the plastic feet on both sides of the board are not made to last.

The Crate & Barrel Reversible Maple End-Grain Cutting Board 18"x13"x1.5" stained easily and warped badly after the first use and didn’t return flat despite our best efforts. It’s extremely dry and required a surprising amount of oil to sufficiently condition it.

We dismissed the Figmint 14"x14" End Grain Acacia Wood Cutting Board and the Crate & Barrel Rectangular Acacia End-Grain Cutting Board because they’re sealed in some type of lacquer. This left unsightly knife marks on their surface since the coating prevented the wood from self healing.

We loved how our knives felt on the Shun Hinoki Cutting Board, which is made of very forgiving Japanese cypress. But it requires wetting before you cut on it, and even then we found that it absorbed odors. It also scars badly and is too high-maintenance for daily use.

For our next update we’d like to test the end-grain walnut board from The Boardsmith and the edge-grain walnut board from RVA Cutting Boards. We’ll also consider testing the Quince End Grain Butcher Block, made of imported walnut.

This article was edited by Gabriella Gershenson and Marguerite Preston.

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Doug Gardner, PhD, former professor of Forest Operations, Bioproducts and Bioenergy at University of Maine, phone interview, December 18, 2014, July 2, 2024

Elvin Beach, PhD, associate professor of practice at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University, email interview, July 24, 2024

Joseph W. Zagorski, PhD, toxicologist at The Center for Research on Ingredient Safety at The Institute for Integrative Toxicology at Michigan State University, email interview, August 2, August 26, 2024

Jeremy Cox, full-time faculty in the Fine Woodworking Program at Red Rocks Community College, phone interview, April 23, 2024

Russell Smith, adjunct faculty at the Fine WoodWorking Program at Santa Fe Community College, phone and email interviews, April 19, June 5, July 30, 2024

Derek Glavich, general contractor and teacher in The Department of Construction Technology at College of the Redwoods, phone interview, April 22, 2024

John Loftis, owner of The Boardsmith, email interviews, July 23, 24, and 25, August 13, 2024

Martin Jones, co-owner of Jones Cutting Boards, LLC, email interviews, July 16 and 17, August 15, 2024

Michael Sullivan

Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. Previously, he was an editor at the International Culinary Center in New York. He has worked in various facets of the food and restaurant industry for over a decade.

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