Butcher block?

[Lynn Sonier]

What wood is butcher block made of? Is it usually end grain showing to the top? How thick should it be to prevent warping. Thinking of making a kitchen island, 24" x 36" with a butcher block top. "Preciate the help!!

[Dale Rodabaugh]

To the best of my knowledge butcher blocks are made of hard or rock maple.I have seen them as thick as 10 or 12 inches,these are the ones that actually came out of the old butcher shops.I would think that 3 or 4 inches thick would be plenty thick enough.Probably someone else will chime in here with more info.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Dick Bringhurst]

I just planed one down for a friend. It was 2 1/2" thick after glue up and 2 1/4" thick when I finished. the wood was hard maple and glued up so the edges were up. The ends showed the end grain. Looked good. Very heavy of course. Dimensions were 2'x3'. Dick B.

[Chris Padilla]

I'm planning my workbench to be a butcher block top but I was only thinking to go 3/4" for the thickness of the butcher-block section. The rest of my workbench will be a laminated MDF and plywood core for a rough final thickness of around 3.5". Should be a heavy son of a gun and the top should take a beating for decades. I will skirt it in maple as well.

[Gail O'Rourke]

Here is one, it is 1 1/4" thick, plenty for a counter.

I made the island but not the butcherblock, I got a 26' by 9' piece from the local lumber liquidators for under $200.00

[Jim Becker]

Hard maple, beech, etc., have all been used for end-grain butcher blocks. These are hard, closed grained woods and the end-grain exposure causes "cuts" to self-heal in many respects.

[Hank Knight]

Lynn, most, if not all, comercially available "butcher block" counter top these days is laminated with the long grain up. Genuine butcher blocks used in butcher shops are made with the end grain up. It is more durable for this purpose - as Jim said, knife cuts on end grain "self heal." I think you can probably still purchase commercial end grain butcher blocks, but I've never seen end grain counter top material advertised.

[Ellen Benkin]

The blocks in old butcher stores were extremely thick so they would be heavy and stable and could be "renewed" (sanded down) when necessary. A block for home use doesn't need to be nearly as thick except as a design element.

[Von Bickley]

Lynn,
I have been told by several "old-timers" that when someone would cut down a large sycamore tree, the neighbors would all come to get a chunk to use for their chopping blocks.
That may have just been a local thing in the south???? :confused:

[Howard Acheson]

Typically, "butcher block" is end grain up while "cutting board" is edge grain up. Butcher's cleavers and knives would rapidly ruin an edge grain but cuts and cleaver marks sort of heal up in end grain. Plus knives stay sharper longer I have heard a butcher say.

That said, if you are interested in making an end grain up board the following might be useful.

There is a little engineering that needs to be considered when building an end grain butcher block. 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.

[Lynn Sonier]

Thanks for taking the time answer, Howie.

[Carl Eyman]

Lynn: Since you never come over to the shop to visit any more, I don't know why I bother to answer you. If you go the end up route, you'll still be working on it next Christmas. And since you never take my advice, anyway, why don't you do it that way?

[Christopher Keele]

Butcher Blocks are typically made of Hard Rock Maple. Sometimes other species are used like Cherry, Walnut, Lyptus, Ash and Red Oak just to name a few. Tried and True is Hard Rock Maple. As far as which grain to run on for the top; its pretty much open to how much one wants to spend. End-grain can accumulate in cost rapidly. You can save some cash by running Edge-Grain instead. Edge-grain for counter tops is most common. High rollers order the End-grain. There really is no need to run end-grain unless you plan on doing some serious chopping. Whatever you choose you really shouldnt see any warping at all. Just make sure you seal it up real good. Mineral Oil if your gonna cut on it and Durakryl102 or Watco Butcher Block Oil for a Varniq.

Chris

[jud dinsmore]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=62719


i tried to link the pic but the thread will as well. built this one out of maple and cherry, 1 /2" thick. no significant overhang but i did stand on it to check deflection. none that i could see. its been installed for almost five months and still looks this good.


good luck,

jud

[Greg Cole]

FWIW, if you really want to go with the end grain style, my folks have on old one in their kitchen that I've drooled over for years. It's 100% hard maple top & legs... the top is 24" thick and all peices are dovetailed on 4 sides (except the ones on the perimeter obviously). The middle is worn down about 3/4" or more from the edges. The old timer said that was from use of salt on the blocks every day as part of their cleaning process as they never used water on them....?
Ya wanna talk about heavy!!! And the 'rents bought it from some older gent who worked as a meat cutter for 40+ years, and he retired when the company he worked for went out of biz & get this... that company GAVE him 10 of those butcher blocks. He had like 6 more of them in his garage & they got it for something like $250.

Cheers.

Greg

[Bill White]

I'm planning my workbench to be a butcher block top but I was only thinking to go 3/4" for the thickness of the butcher-block section. The rest of my workbench will be a laminated MDF and plywood core for a rough final thickness of around 3.5". Should be a heavy son of a gun and the top should take a beating for decades. I will skirt it in maple as well.

Chris,
I understand the "call of the bench", and when I got it I was able to locate a chunk of bowling alley. Now we're talkin' some seriously tough stuff. It was not glued. It was put together with hardened steel, spiral nails. I wrapped the edge with an apron, drilled my dog holes, etc. Been pouinding on that puppy for a lot of years. May want to look around to see if some alley is available.
Bill

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Hey folks......THIS THREAD IS OVER 2 YEARS OLD ....I SUSPECT EVERYONE HAS SOLVED THEIR ISSUES!