First question. :) The cutting board is an imported .obj. In the bottom right corner, the curve isn't totally smooth. Is there a way to further smooth it inside Carrara, or do I need to make sure it's perfectly round before importing it?

Second question...any suggestions? :)

~ Nevanna ~

First question: you can smooth an OBJ by either subdividing or applying smoothing in the modeling room. That should make it look a bit better. Second question: Add some meat? :) The shader on your board looks like stone. You might want to experiment with some of the wood presets.

I'd like to see a bolt / nut in the handle to hold the hilt of the knife in place. I'm also a fan of the chef knives, you know the ones... thicker blade - It would stand out more in the scene. R

Smooth it before importing it. That is, if it can be smoothed without destroying it.

Looks like possibly some bad polys there. What I'd do, is jump into the vertex room and see if Carrara has set creasing for any edges. You want creasing, but only for the blade edge and back itself (if the poly count is high enough you won't even need that). To really get it glassy, crease just what you need then apply a level or two of SubD smoothing.