When I was at school our caretaker was very protective of the hall floor. He banned high heals entirely. Pupils, parents, teachers, visitor – they were just not allowed. His reasoning was quite logical. The weight of a moderately slim human concentrated on a steel tipped narrow heal represent several tons per square inch of pressure and punched holes through the varnish and into the wood.

The same applies to your knives.

Although Granite worktops and Glass chopping boards look really good they are actually knife killers. When you slice through something which offers resistance the click you hear, the chopping noise if it like, is the microscopically thin cutting edge of your knife hitting the surface you are cutting on with considerable force. Something has to give and if the surface you are cutting on is harder than the edge on your knife - the surface wins and you’ve brutally damaged your knife!

When I worked in butchery we had the traditional Butchers Block and thick plastic topped cutting tables. In commercial kitchens the Environment Health Officers take a very dim view of wood, so Chefs Boards are plastic and usually colour coded.

In your home kitchen it really doesn’t matter if your prefer wood or plastic. As long as you protect your knives from hard surfaces they will stay sharper for much longer. Clearly your boards are going to become scored over time and will eventually need to be replaced. So environmentally wood is the better option. But replacing your boards after 6 months or more is going to be much less costly than having to replace your knives or repeatedly have them reground.