There's a foil edge on very sharp knives that will wrinkle and fold after use on anything, even tomatoes, making the knife feel dull. It's not, and it doesn't require removing metal as with grinding or sharpening, but you can steel to realign that edge or strop to hone it depending on the blade and angle. Even if you don't work with blades often, you've probably seen this depicted in media.

It really doesn't matter what the cutting surface is to the knife if you have great technique. Since I don't always, I use thin, flexible plastic barriers. I would never recommend wood outside of having no other choices or using it as part of presentation, mainly because of cross contamination and difficulty in sanitizing if you cook sous vide or serve raw often.