• Wooden cutting board with a reddish-brown color on a white background
  • Wooden cutting board with dimensions and product details on a light gray background
  • Wooden cutting board with text about thickness and quality, featuring a brand logo.
  • Wooden cutting board with bread and oil, Boos Block branding, and text about the product.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring a text overlay on wood types.
  • Family of three at a dining table with a Boos Block R-Board Series cutting board.
  • Person using a knife to chop greens on a wooden cutting board with 'Boos Block' branding.
  • Wooden cutting board with bread and oil bottle on a light gray background
  • Wooden cutting board with dimensions and product details on a light gray background
  • Wooden cutting board with text about thickness and quality, featuring a brand logo.
  • Wooden cutting board with lettuce on a light gray background, featuring the Boos Block brand.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring information on wood types.
  • Family preparing food together with Boos Block cutting board in the foreground
  • Person in a kitchen preparing food on a wooden cutting board with a rolling pin and other kitchen tools.
  • Wooden block with a metal tool on a wooden surface, featuring the 'BOOS Block' brand.
  • Wooden cutting board with dimensions and product details on a beige background
  • Wooden cutting board with text about thickness and quality, featuring a brand logo.
  • Wooden cutting board with 'Boos Block' branding and text about the product on a beige background.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring information on wood types.
  • Family preparing food together with a Boos Block cutting board in the foreground.
  • Wooden cutting board with grilled pineapple and shrimp skewers on a granite countertop.
  • Wooden cutting board with 'BOOS' branding on a light background
  • Wooden cutting board with dimensions and product details on a light background
  • Wooden cutting board with text about thickness and quality, featuring a brand logo.
  • Wooden cutting board with 'Boos' branding on a white background
  • Wooden cutting board with bread and olive oil, Boos Block branding, on a beige background.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring information on wood types.
  • Family preparing food together with a Boos Block cutting board in the foreground.
  • Wooden cutting board with bread slices and a carafe of oil on a light background
  • Wooden cutting board with 'Boos Blocks' branding on a kitchen counter with vegetables.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring information on wood types.
  • Family preparing food together with Boos Block cutting board in the foreground
  • Person using a knife on a wooden cutting board with 'BOOS' branding in a kitchen setting.
  • Person using a pasta cutter on dough on a wooden board with 'Boos Block' branding.
  • Wooden cutting board with text about thickness and quality, featuring a brand since 1887.
  • Wooden cutting board with 'BGO' branding on a white background
  • Wooden cutting board with vegetables on a light background, featuring the Boos Block brand.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring information on wood types.
  • Family preparing food together with a BOOS BLOCK cutting board in the foreground.
  • Raw salmon fillet with greens and salt on a wooden cutting board outdoors.
  • Wooden cutting board with a tomato and lettuce on a light gray background
  • Wooden R-Board with dimensions and product details on a light gray background
  • Wooden cutting board with text about thickness and quality, featuring the brand since 1887.
  • Wooden cutting board with 'Boo's' branding on a white background
  • Wooden cutting board with croissants and a cup of coffee, featuring the Boos Block brand.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube on a light background, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring information on wood types.
  • Family preparing food together with a Boos Block cutting board in the foreground.
  • Person cutting greens on a wooden cutting board with 'Boos Block' branding
  • Wooden cutting board with 'BOOS Block' branding and croissants on a light gray background
  • Wooden cutting board with dimensions and certification details on a light gray background
  • Wooden cutting board with text about thickness and quality, featuring a brand logo.
  • Wooden cutting board with bread and fruit on a beige background, featuring the Boos Block brand.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube on a light background, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring information on wood types.
  • Family preparing food together with Boos Block cutting board in the foreground
  • Person preparing a salad on a wooden cutting board with a Boos brand logo.
  • Person drizzling olive oil over a salad on a wooden cutting board with a knife.
  • Wooden cutting board with dimensions and product details on a light background
  • Wooden cutting board with text about thickness and quality, featuring a brand since 1887.
  • Wooden cutting board with vegetables on a light background, featuring the Boos Block brand.
  • Boos Block product set with bottles and a tube, accompanied by text about product features and history.
  • Stack of wooden cutting boards with 'Boos Block' branding, featuring a text overlay on wood types.
  • Family preparing food together with a BOOS BLOCK cutting board in the foreground.
  • Grilled steak on a wooden cutting board with vegetables and pasta in the background
  • Wooden cutting board with vegetables on a light background
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John Boos R-Board Cherry Cutting Board (24" x 18")

John Boos R-Board Cherry Cutting Board (24" x 18")

A Classic American Edge-Grain Board in Cherry

John Boos has been making butcher blocks in Effingham, Illinois since 1887, and the R-Board is their straightforward, do-everything cutting board. This is the cherry version at 24 by 18 inches and an inch and a half thick, a genuinely large prep surface with room to break down vegetables, carve, and stage a whole meal. It is reversible, with recessed finger grips on each side so a heavy board is easy to lift and flip. As solid American cherry, it is inert and sheds no microplastics, with no coating to wear off.

Cherry is the quietly excellent choice for a cutting board. It is a softer hardwood than maple, which makes it gentle on knife edges, and its close grain and small pores give it natural resistance to bacteria and moisture. It also carries a warm reddish-brown color that deepens with age. The R-Board is edge-grain construction, where the long edges of the wood strips face up. That is not quite as kind to knives as end grain, where the fibers stand vertically, but it is meaningfully more affordable and still far gentler on edges than any plastic, glass, or steel board.

One credential worth stating accurately: the John Boos R-Board line is NSF certified, which is a genuine third-party certification for food-contact safety. That is a real standard, distinct from our own assessment below.

True Shift Score: 8.8 / 10

This is our own assessment, not a lab result, though it is worth noting this board carries a real NSF food-safety certification on top of our view.

It lands just below the end-grain boards for one honest reason: edge grain is a touch less gentle on knives and self-heals a little less than end grain. Everything else is excellent. It sheds no microplastics, it is solid made-in-USA cherry from a brand with a 130-plus-year record, it is large and built to outlast you, and cherry's softness and close grain make it genuinely knife-friendly. For most kitchens this is a practical, beautiful pick, and the small gap from a 9 is about construction nuance, not quality.

The Honest Tradeoffs

1. The honest knock on edge grain is simply that it is not end grain, so for protecting high-end knives an end-grain block edges it out. 

2. At 24 by 18 and around 13 to 14 pounds in cherry, it is a large, substantial board, which is a plus for stability and a consideration if your counter or storage is tight. 

3. And it carries the usual wood-board upkeep: hand wash, dry promptly, oil regularly, never the dishwasher. 

4. Cherry shows its patina over time, which most owners consider part of its charm rather than a flaw.

How We Evaluate Cutting Boards

We look at four things, and none of them is a lab score:

1. Whether the material sheds microplastics, 

2. How kind it is to your knives, 

3. Whether any glue or finish is food-safe, 

4. And how well it lasts with normal care. 

Cutting boards are a microplastics-and-glue question, not a PFAS one, despite what some guides imply.

View full details

When Something Else Is the Better Fit

  • If you want the gentlest possible surface for fine knives, an end-grain board like the WoodForChef walnut or Virginia Boys walnut is the step up.
  • If raw meat is your main job and you want a scrub-hard, non-absorbent surface, a stainless steel board is more hygienic, though metal dulls knives.
  • For a lighter, cheaper, renewable option, bamboo is the budget pick.

Related Reading and Collections

For the full science on why plastic boards shed and how the materials compare, read our guide to microplastics in cutting boards, and for the wider picture on PFAS and microplastics across the kitchen, see our non-toxic kitchen guide. To weigh other options, browse the full Sustainable Cutting Boards collection, or step back to the Microplastic-Free Kitchen hub for cookware, cooking tools, and food storage. If you would like to work through your whole home step by step, our DIY Healthy Home Guidebooks are a practical place to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is cherry a good wood for a cutting board?

Yes. Cherry is a softer hardwood, so it is gentle on knife edges, and its close grain with small pores gives it good natural resistance to bacteria and moisture. It is one of the most knife-friendly woods you can choose.

What is the difference between edge grain and end grain?

Edge grain shows the long sides of the wood strips and is more affordable and lighter; end grain shows the fiber ends standing up and is gentler on knives and better at self-healing. Both are solid wood and shed no microplastics. Edge grain is the value choice; end grain is the premium one.

What does the NSF certification mean?

NSF is an independent certification for food-contact safety, so it tells you the board meets a recognized standard for use with food. It is separate from our own True Shift Score, which reflects our assessment of materials, knife-friendliness, and durability.

About This Product

This board is fulfilled through Amazon, which handles pricing, availability, and shipping. The True Shift earns a commission on qualifying purchases, and that is what keeps this work independent and reader-supported rather than funded by the brands being reviewed.

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Take the Shift Further

I am Vipul, and I spent years auditing the materials and chemicals that come into our homes. I built this space to provide honest, expert-backed reviews of the products you use every day, with the reasoning shown rather than hidden behind a score. The work stays independent because it is supported directly by readers rather than by the brands being reviewed.If you want to support that work, you get access to ongoing research, deep-dive chemical notes, non-toxic living tips, and new product reviews as they are finished. Find us on Substack and Patreon:

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