Spent the last few months digging into why my knives kept dulling on my old cutting board and why my non-stick pan stopped being non-stick after 6 months. Turns out both problems trace back to the same root cause: the materials.

Plastic cutting boards — every knife stroke shaves off microscopic plastic particles. Studies have found this is one of the biggest sources of microplastic ingestion in a typical household. Glass boards solve the plastic problem but destroy knife edges. Wood is fine but harbors bacteria in the grooves over time.

Teflon (PTFE) pans — non-stick coatings start breaking down above ~500°F, which is easy to hit on a home stove with an empty pan for even a minute. Once the coating starts flaking, you're eating it. Most non-stick pans die within a year for exactly this reason.

The fix isn't complicated, it's just less marketed because coated aluminum is cheaper to manufacture than solid metal: solid stainless steel boards (naturally antimicrobial, don't shed anything, dishwasher safe) and ceramic-coated pans with zero PFAS/PTFE (the coating is silica-based, not a polymer that breaks down).

Started Steel & Slate to sell exactly these two things, nothing else. If you've been meaning to replace your plastic board or your dying non-stick pan, happy to answer questions on materials/care in the comments.