Every good cook has a selection of cutting boards in various shapes and sizes, but few have the real thing–a hefty end-grain chopping block like professional chefs use. A big advantage to an end-grain chopping block is that it doesn’t suffer the kind of damage that a face-grain cutting board does. With an end-grain surface, the knife edge slips in between the wood fibers rather than slicing them off, providing a very long-lasting working surface.