The Best Cutting Board Oil, Tested by Our Experts

Using a cutting board oil regularly (depending on how often you use and wash your board) can help preserve its surface, prevent cracks and other wear and tear, and extend its life. After putting four John Boos wooden cutting boards through the wringer (we washed them several times in a dishwasher, soaked them in water, and chopped numerous veggies on them), CR applied four popular oils and creams to each one to determine which products worked the best. 

The ones we used were either a food-safe mineral-oil-based oil or a cream with beeswax as its key ingredient. We didn’t find considerable differences among them, with one exception. There’s just one cutting board maintenance kit that we thought was the only one you’ll ever need. (It even comes with a sturdy and pretty fabulous applicator.)