Chopping board

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TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,092
1,624
Vantaa, Finland
Out of what wood have your boards been? I am just thinking of making a few as both cottage and apartment have run out of them and Lady of the House is kind of destroying a lot of edges against various surfaces. The intention is to make both cutting and cutting/serving boards. The only local wood fit for the purpose is birch but I would like to have something more stain resistant and darker. Also how much difference does it make if end- or side grain?
 
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Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Mine are sycamore. It's a lovely even wood, hard wearing, very scrubable, doesn't taint food at all, doesn't need oiling, mine don't even seem to stain with stuff like peppers or tomatoes. My oldest one, still in daily use, came from an Aunt's house, and since she got married in 1952, and it was new then, that makes it seventy years old.
Can't complain about that :)
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
I'd make the choice based upon wood anatomy. Very open porous woods allow meat and fruit juices to soak well down into the wood and decompose (bacteria you can't wash off).
This eliminates the red oak group, hickory and the ash (Fraxinus) species.

Any fruit wood has very small and scattered pores (vessels of vessel elements). Apple and pear heart wood is elegant.

What do I have on hand? Birch. Very easily sealed with a dab of cutting board sealer oil.

Which do I use the most? A stack of flexible cleaver-proof plastic sheets, dishwasher safe.
Which ones do I really like the most? A 1" slab of bird's-eye hard maple, wiped with good olive oil. Used a lot, the oil won't go rancid.
The other one is a piece of pine book shelf. Likely 25 yrs old now, remarkably cleaver proof. Not whacked up or shredded at all.
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Exactly. It's the junk off-cuts that often have the best figure. I got a source of little screw-on rubber feet to stop the sliding around.

That rippled maple looks very "appetizing."

The bird's-eye maple that I mentioned? The wood store had a pallet of ugly off-cut junk maple that they were selling by weight!
 

bobnewboy

Native
Jul 2, 2014
1,293
847
West Somerset
Exactly. It's the junk off-cuts that often have the best figure. I got a source of little screw-on rubber feet to stop the sliding around.

That rippled maple looks very "appetizing."

The bird's-eye maple that I mentioned? The wood store had a pallet of ugly off-cut junk maple that they were selling by weight!
It looks better with some nice cheeses (see threads passim), salamis, and crusty bread on top of it :)

I’ve only ever found a small piece of bird’s eye maple in a ‘junk’ pile, but it’s proven too thin to make something solid from. I think it could be an absolute swine to work in, but the results would be something else….
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Apparently, work with bird's-eye as if you are machining soft metal.

The deal here in southern coastal BC is that the figure is not in every tree. Recently, some hundreds of maples had their bark stripped by tree rustlers, looking for bird's eye. Of course the trees die and all the landscaping merits went with them.
 
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Kadushu

If Carlsberg made grumpy people...
Jul 29, 2014
852
920
Kent
The best one I ever made was from pear but I reckon apple would as good if not better. Cherry is very pretty.
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
I am an opportunist. I wasn't after cutting board wood slabs. I was flipping through a lift of 6' yellow cedar beams, looking for good carving pieces (took 2/50). The maple was stacked next to that so I had a poke at it. The bird's eye was so stunning that I decided to buy it (1" x 16" x 12") just to own it.

At that time, I was quite content to use my cleavers on a oiled offcut of pine book shelf. Got a rusty 10" saw blade to cut out some Ulu and Umialik. Birch handles, I think. If anything, they will do more damage to the pine than any cleaver.
 

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