Cutting board grain direction

[Prashun Patel]

I've been making a number of cutting boards recently. I have a question about grain orientation on end-grain boards.

Is there a problem gluing edge-grain to face grain before cutting into blocks and rotating them? The reason is that I want to pair 8/4 purpleheart with thin maple laminations. The problem is that I only have 4/4 maple stock. So, in order to get 2" laminations, they'll be oriented with the face grain glued to the side grain of the purpleheart.

Is that making any sense?

I've heard different accounts of grain orientation. Some say it's very important; others say not so much. I'm hoping the thin maple laminations will be too thin to make much difference.

[keith micinski]

I don't know how much this helps but I made 5 or 6 maple and purple heart cutting boards about 3 years ago and not a single one had any consideration towards grain direction. All of them are functioning just fine.

[Howard Acheson]

Here is something I put together a number of years ago. It should answer your question.

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.

Generally, threaded rod is not used as maple has quite a bit of movement when it's moisture content changes. Threaded rod would restrict this movement and either deform the block or pull the nut/washers into the wood when it expanded leaving the rod performing no function when the wood later shrinks. Proper gluing will keep the block together.

Finally, it always much cheaper, and a lot less aggrevating to purchase a butcher block than to make one. The firms that specialize in end grain butcher blocks have speciaiized equipment to apply the necessary clamping force, plane the initial boards exactly correctly, plane the first glue up and then clamps to make the final block.

[daniel lane]

Prashun,

I think Howie had a lot to say, so I'll keep this brief. In my experience, I would caution making glue-ups with the grain far off on each piece. Howie is right on the QS/FS glue up issue, but if I understood your plan, you actually would benefit from using 4/4 QS maple turned on side to glue against the edge of FS purpleheart...or vice versa. Basically, I think you're good if you watch the ring orientation...which would technically be gluing edge to edge or face to face, anyway, right?



daniel

[Prashun Patel]

Thank you. I will turn the purpleheart to make it edge grain up. This way I can glue face to face for every single piece. That little nugget about annular rings is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, Howie.

As for the "it is far cheaper to buy..." that goes for a lot of things. I'm not doing this because it's cheap, but because I want to.

Last, I've seen that write up from you on several different threads, but obviously never read it closely enough!!!!