Cracks in end grain cutting board

[Jason White]

174548174545174546174547I just made an end grain cutting board using scrap pieces of walnut, cherry, maple and ipe. Except for the ipe, all of the wood had been sitting in my shop for years. The ipe was only in my shop a few days (leftovers from a decking project). I used Mahoneys walnut oil as a finish and the cutting board looks great, except that the ipe pieces all have hairline checks/cracks in them. I guess I'd better use a moisture meter next time!

What can I use to seal the cracks? Was thinking about some thin viscosity cyanoacrylate and recoating with oil unless you guys have a better idea.

Jason

[Howard Acheson]

If the ipe is not or was not properly dried and equalized to the other woods, it is going to continue to "crack" until it does. I would suggest just stickering the cutting board for a month or so to let it acclimate. Then you can consider what you want to do to stablize it. The challange is that anything you apply will seal the surface making re-application of oil a problem.

Any way to publish a photo?

[Scott Holmes]

Sounds like a nice looking cutting board. I too would like to see a picture.

[Jason White]

I just uploaded some pictures. The red circles show where some of the cracks are. There are rubber feet on the bottom to eliminate slippage on the kitchen counter and so that air can circulate underneath. Jason

[Scott Holmes]

Very nice cutting board.

[Prashun Patel]

That looks like some thick stuff. It probably was not as dry inside as thought. You might be able to stymie the cracks by filling with epoxy or CA, but I would also wax the whole board with anchorseal or a mix of MS and paraffin wax and let the board 'season' for a while until everything settles.

[John Lanciani]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I've never seen any decking material, Ipe' included, that was anywhere near dry enough for indoor projects without significant time to acclimatize. Now that you have so much of the end grain exposed it is drying out extremely rapidly and since it is glued to wood that is already dry it will continue to crack and split. I'd put it up on a shelf and let it do it's thing for the winter and hopefully come spring it will still be in one piece.

[Howard Acheson]

Re-looking at your pictures I have some additional comments that should be taken into consideration for the next time you build an end grain board. All the boards should be glued up so that the growth visible on the end runs in the same direction. I think your hairline cracks are the result of both the ipe not being fully dried and the willy nilly growth ring orientation.

There is a little engineering that needs to be considered when building an end grain butcher block or cutting board. First, choose wood where the growth rings (viewed from the end) run as close to 90 degrees or parallel to one edge. Remember, the expansion/contraction is about double along the annular rings verses perpendicular to the rings. You've got to keep the grain running in the same direction as you glue up your strips. In other words, don't glue a flatsawn edge to a quartersawn edge.

Next, the way butcher blocks are made is to glue up strips of wood like you were making a laminated type cutting board. These laminated panels are then run through a planer to flatten them and bring them to equal thickness. Then the panel is crosscut into strips of blocks equal to the thickness that you want the butcher block to be. These block strips are then glued together again keeping the grain running in the same directions.

Not paying attention to the grain orientation will lead to the block cracking and/or joints being pulled apart.

A type II adhesive will work just fine however, you need to be sure you do everything right to get good adhesion. Your glue faces should be flat and freshly cut. It they were cut more than a few days earlier, freshen them up with about three swipes with 320 sandpaper and block to keep the faces flat.

[Jason White]

Well, after a couple of weeks I filled the hairline cracks with thin viscosity cyanoacrylate and resanded the top. The cracks are virtually invisible. I then mixed some Mahoney's walnut oil and white beeswax together in the microwave and wiped on a couple of coats. It's now totally waterproof and you don't see any knife marks after using it. Looks like problem solved. Thanks for all the input! Jason