Cutting board splits

[Ray Schafer]

I have a couple of cutting boards that I have not oiled enough. The edges have started to crack. How can I fix this? Should I just fill the cracks with epoxy?

Suggestions appreciated.

Ray

[Frank Drew]

Ray,

Is the wood itself cracking or are glue lines opening up (that can happen even with commercial butcher block)? What kind of wood is it?

If the boards have been used for a while with the cracks, there might be enough contaminant in there to prevent a good epoxy bond, but you won't know unless you try. The worst that can happen is that you won't like the results and might have to cut the boards along the cracks and redo them.

[Howard Acheson]

Oil will have little affect on the cracking. What are the woods? What kind of construction was used? (laminated, end-grain, flat sawn).

How about a picture?

[Ray Schafer]

They are low-quality flat-sawn cutting boards that are splitting at the glue lines. I tried to use clamps to draw them together, but to no avail.

I think I will try to clean out the cracks and just try to use some Gorilla glue to fill them ... unless there are better ideas.

Ray

[Lex Boegen]

Why not rip along the glue line and joint the surfaces flat again before re-gluing?

[Russell Sansom]

If the cutting boards are going to be used for cutting, epoxy and gorilla glue both sound like inferior solutions. Epoxy is going to dull knives and possibly add some toxicity. Urethane is going to soak up stuff and erode. I think you almost have cut and re-glue. What to do about the lost width? Perhaps you could cut a bit more than necessary and put in some strips of cherry or other contrasting wood. And joint with a considerable hollow to help prevent the problem next time ( a fat 1/32", perhaps ).

[Frank Drew]

I agree with Lex, don't fight the wood.

[Ray Schafer]

Well I can do that with one of them, but one is a turkey tray and is not rectangle and has a drip tray around the edge.