Soft Maple for a cutting board?

[Dave Lehnert]

Is soft maple ok to use for a cutting board? Not my first choice, but I have a ton of scraps in the shop.

What is your list of good/bad woods for cutting boards?

[doug faist]

Sure; works like a charm and I, personally, like to work with it better than rock maple.

Favorites for cutting boards? Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Jatoba, White Oak (end grain only) and just about anything in the scrap bin except for the dreaded Domestic Conifer! :D

Have fun with your project.

Doug

[Jim Becker]

Sure it is. Despite the name..."Soft" maple isn't. ;) While it's not as "hard" as "hard" maple, it's still pretty tough stuff.

[Bob Haskett]

Let us know how it turns out. I am about to make one with Purpleheart and Hard Maple as soon as I get my shop projects done (Thien Separator, Planer Station, Enclose Router Table, Finish DC, etc.)

[Dave Lehnert]

Let us know how it turns out. I am about to make one with Purpleheart and Hard Maple as soon as I get my shop projects done (Thien Separator, Planer Station, Enclose Router Table, Finish DC, etc.)

Will do. Hope to have it done very soon as this is a last minute birthday gift.
I did a search on Sawmill and a member recomended the Oct 2006 issue172 of WOOD magazine. How to build an endgrain board. I just happed to have that issue in my library.

http://www.woodstore.net/is17oc20.html

[Bob Haskett]

Will do. Hope to have it done very soon as this is a last minute birthday gift.
I did a search on Sawmill and a member recomended the Oct 2006 issue172 of WOOD magazine. How to build an endgrain board. I just happed to have that issue in my library.

http://www.woodstore.net/is17oc20.html

Nice...This is the one I am doing.

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-7-a-cut-above-part-1/

[Jim Riseborough]

why cant oak be used in a cutting board? Also what glue do you find works the best and last the longest?

[Bob Haskett]

why cant oak be used in a cutting board? Also what glue do you find works the best and last the longest?

Tightbond II (or 3) for glue. Or any glue that is FDA approved and waterproof (some people do not care about this, but I would use FDA approved to be safe). Oak is too porous. It can easily harbor bacteria. It is not the worst choice but not the best either. You could use oak if you kept it to vegetables just fine though. I just would not cut meat on it.

[Lee Schierer]

why cant oak be used in a cutting board? Also what glue do you find works the best and last the longest?

Red Oak has open pores which can harbour nasty bacteria. White oak is probably okay as it has closed pores. My Mother has a cutting board made from redwood, that is at least 45 years old, so some conifer wood is also suitable.

[Jay Allen]

White oak is fine, it's red oak that you really should avoid. The simple reason is that it is just to "open" in it's structure.
Think of it as a handful of drinking straws. Anything and everything just soaks into the endgrain, and if you use it in a cross-grain fashion, the individual "straw" pieces are cut loose from repeated use.

Density is important. Heavy closed-celled hardwoods are best. Maple is great.

[Dan Gill]

I've used soft maple and hard maple in my cutting boards. Both work well. I also use white oak pretty extensively. My boards are made from a variety of hardwoods, and the biggest criteria for the maple is that it is white as possible for the contrast.

[Dave Lehnert]

Does a woodworker need to be concerned with any wood (tropical) contaminating the food. I plan just to use mineral oil.

[Dave Lehnert]

spent a couple of hours in the shop planing down some wood and got the pieces glued up. Soft Maple, Cherry and Walnut.

$300 worth of clamps to build a $20 cutting board. You can never have enough clamps. :D

[Dave Lehnert]

Update.

I got the panel planed down and the strips cut to expose the end grain and re-glued. Because of all the strips (24 total) I had to do the glue-up in three sections. I had a little problem I did not anticipate. When I glued each three sections I got a bow kinda like I was gluing a rocker. I had to joint one edge then rip the other to get things square again. Changed the pattern a bit but not as bad as I thought at first.

How has others prevented this problem? I guess a little less pressure on the clamps but my plan next time is to use a length of thicker wood (or some kind of metal sq tubing) on each end to prevent the bow.
Open to suggestions.

[Dave Lehnert]

The finished product.

Here is the cutting board after about two hours of sanding and sanding and sanding.........
A drum sander has moved closer to the top of my tool list.

Sown with top coat of Mineral Oil.

[Jeff Bratt]

Here is the cutting board after about two hours of sanding and sanding and sanding.........


A low angle plane is perfect for quickly smoothing these end-grain cutting boards. The old Stanley's (#62s?) were sometimes called butcher-block planes...

[Dave Lehnert]

A low angle plane is perfect for quickly smoothing these end-grain cutting boards. The old Stanley's (#62s?) were sometimes called butcher-block planes...

Thought of that but don't own a Low angle plane. Was going to try a regular Jack plane but decided against that. I was pressed for time as this was a gift and did not want to screw it up experimenting.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Note that research shows that all hardwoods are excellent for cutting boards --worries about Oak acting like straws full of bacteria are TOTALLY unfounded.
For details see this research report from UC Davis
http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/docliver/Research/cuttingboard.htm

[Derald Smith]

Update.

I got the panel planed down and the strips cut to expose the end grain and re-glued. Because of all the strips (24 total) I had to do the glue-up in three sections. I had a little problem I did not anticipate. When I glued each three sections I got a bow kinda like I was gluing a rocker. I had to joint one edge then rip the other to get things square again. Changed the pattern a bit but not as bad as I thought at first.

How has others prevented this problem? I guess a little less pressure on the clamps but my plan next time is to use a length of thicker wood (or some kind of metal sq tubing) on each end to prevent the bow.
Open to suggestions.

I glue-up 12 " wide sections and join them with biscuits and clamp the middle first from bottom and clamp the ends from the top. Alternating the clamps seems to distribute the pressure in evenly and I don't get bowing. I use bar clamps. If the board is over 24" wide, I also clamp 2x4 across the middle with wax paper on it and that keeps it from bowing also. I usually only have this bowing issue with cutting boards 1" or less in thickness.

[John K Jordan]

Sure it is. Despite the name..."Soft" maple isn't. ;) While it's not as "hard" as "hard" maple, it's still pretty tough stuff.

That's what I need to do then - I have access to a warehouse full of 4/4 maple already planed. I thought of making some workbench tops for the shop but if it will work for cutting boards it would sure be easier to glue up and flatten. The guy told me it was hard maple but cutting into it with my knife it was softer than the rock maple I usually use for turning.

JKJ

[Roger Nair]

I would avoid ring porous hardwoods, such as oak, especially when there are many closed grain woods available.

[Jon Nuckles]

7 year old thread!

[John K Jordan]

7 year old thread!

But timeless and interesting. Got me planning to make some maple cutting boards.

JKJ