Every time I go to cut food, I always get annoyed by the hand opening. I’m not always handling the board so much to need a hand hold. It’s always laying flat. The only time I need the hand hold is when I pick it up.
Then today, I realized … it’s a melee weapon.
I’ve heard of that and I’ve seen that but I never do that.
I do quite a bit of my own cooking. I learned from my mom who worked in a commercial kitchen and I worked next to her for a few summers.
Every cutting board she had was just one large block with no holes. We’d cut tons of food and every time to needed to clear it, you pick it up and dump it into the sink or trash can. It’s just faster that way.
I never saw the use of taking a few extra moments to guide the board to the trash can, align it to the top of the can, then carefully move all the scraps to the hole.
A faster way is to just pick up the board, move it to the trash can, use the nonsharp end of your knife as a scraper and push everything off in one quick move.
My board is wider than the can. But I’m not sure about “that’s what the whole is for”. My board has a round hole like for a thumb. I find it useful for hanging it up to dry, after cleaning.