How fast will a poly board degrade an edge?

[Eamon Burke]

This is one for those of you who have tried a lot of different cutting substrata in a professional setting:

Just how bad for steel are poly cutting boards?

I mean, they are softer than VG-10, which is what my work knife is made out of, but I can tell that my edge isn't lasting as long as I want it to(like 3 very busy days instead of a week), and I know it's not being damaged(like chipping or anything noticeable) and I know it's not a wire edge problem, because after I sharpen it, I can slam the edge on a bamboo cutting board a few times and it's still very sharp, and I am crazy about deburring.

But my prep load at work has gotten pretty high lately, we've been catering some medium size events, and it's pretty much all me as far as prepping and cooking the food goes. We have poly boards at work, and I'll be replacing mine with a sani-tuff as soon as I get some spare cash. But is this really a cutting board issue? I know everyone says poly boards aren't the best, but are they really so bad that they will dull your knife in a few days?

 

[Lefty]

I've wondered the same thing, and I still use a poly board for my proteins.
With proteins, of course, you could use glass and it wouldn't matter much (or a steel countertop as my old butcher used to make me do in busy times).
When I was working in restaurants a few years back, I noticed the polyboards' biggest issue was the grabbing of the edge if I had any torsional pressure at all in my motion. Of course, in a rush, this happens...especially with crap knives that you don't care about!
I'm sure others will weigh in on this, but I've always had a theory that they kill edges by pushing the very tip of the edge in many different directions because of differing softness all over.
I could be wrong, though!

 

[NO ChoP!]

In the pro world, you have to live with what you get sometimes. I would suggest using a ceramic rod, since you're using a SS knife; or stropping, if you have the time to break it out. I strop directly on my stones sometimes (as slicing 100 crusted hanger steaks a night degrades an edge quickly).... seems to work really well for me; but not sure if this is a Kosher tactic.