Tips on Making a Cutting Board

[John Buzzurro]

LOML has requested a cutting board, and I've never made one before. My main concern is with the fact that it will come in contact with food. So, I have some questions:

1) Is there any particular wood type that is best to use? I was thinking of maple with possibly some kind of exotic for accent.

2) Are there special requirements for glue type? I read somewhere on here that you need to use 'Type II' glue, but I'm not familiar with it, or where to get it.

3) Are there any options to using mineral oil as the finish?

Thanks,
John

[Ian Abraham]

1- Not really. Maple is fine and contrasting with something darker is a good look. Walnut and Maple works well. It's a great use for those little offcuts that are sitting around the workshop. (Dont tell me you threw then out :eek: )

2 - Glue - Something waterproof and strong. I use ployurethane (gorilla ) glue but there are others that will work well too.

Be warned you wont be able to make just one ( I wonder what this will look like mixed with that and a strip of that other? ). Then there are different sizes and shapes and thicknesses.. or what about using end grain....
You can take care of everyones Xmas presents at least :D

Wood boards tend to be fairly safe because the structure of the wood kills of bacteria thats left on/in the surface as the wood dries out after use. It's still a good idea to have seperate boards for meat and raw veges though.

Cheers

Ian

[Vaughn McMillan]

Hi John -

Maple is probably the best and most common choice for the main body of the board...the harder the better if the LOYL is going to be doing much cutting on it. I've had good success making accents from exotics (purple heart, yellow heart, satine) as well as domestic woods (cherry, walnut). I'd suggest trying to stay away from the more porous woods like walnut or mahogany for the main mody of the board if you're planning to use if for much cutting, since the wood pores can collect all sorts of undesirable things over time.

The Type II glues (like Titebond II available from the BORG) are a bit more waterproof than standard yellow glues, although if you're treating the cutting board properly (no soaking, and only hand wash and immediately dry), the extra waterproof-ness of the Type II glue is somewhat moot. I use the Type II glue only because I can then advertise my boards as using "FDA Approved" glues. My sister has a cutting board I made about 30 years ago using regular yellow Elmers glue, and it's had nearly daily use since it was built. No signs yet of glue failure. Aside from a bit lower cost, another advantage to plain ol' yellow glue is you have a bit more working time before it sets up.

Mineral oil is my finish of choice, since it's food-safe, and can easily be renewed/repaired. I've read of other folks who use "salad bowl finish" which is also food-safe, but since it's a membrane coating, I believe it's a bit more difficult to repair. I plan to try some salad bowl finish soon on some serving tray ideas I have floating around. I like the idea of a finish that's a bit glossier than the mineral oil provides.

Feel free to visit my WorkingWoods website (see my profile for the link) for a few more thoughts and ideas on the subject. I started making cutting boards for fun and as a way to get back into woodworking after a long absence, and they've kind of taken on a life of their own. ;)

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

- Vaughn

[Dan Oliphant]

John,

There is no shortage to opinions on cutting board materials/finish and cleaning/maintenance.
Mine is as follows; use a hardwood that has small cells/pores like hard maple, but many other woods will do fine. (small pores make finish and maintenance easier and safer)
For finish, go to the local borg and pick up a small bottle of butcher block oil (all it is is mineral oil) Coat liberally then wipe off excess after the hardwood is finished sucking it in.
Maintenance is to recoat as needed when the hardwood starts to look dry.

[Ray Arnold]

I just finished makeing some cutting boards (my first attempt) useing iformation I got form this forum , I used hard maple with walnut accents, glued with TitebondII, and finished with mineral oil , you can see them here>
http://community.webshots.com/album/462236894zcWjMf
I'm not sure how they will hold up to cutting, but I guess time will tell.

[Joe Judge]

wood

I worry about woods on the toxic wood list. So, I like to stay with domestic hardwoods ... but so much want to try using purpleheart, etc. I have used zebrawood & it looks nice, and very dense.

finish

I've used walnut oil & tend to like it.
I get it from the grocery store (to ensure its food-safe, etc.) and seems a wee bit cheaper than the walnut oil I see at the woodworkers store.

I've used "Butcher block" oil from a woodworkers store. Its just mineral oil & something else (wax?). I find mineral oil from the drugstore is much less expensive.

I've never used that "salad bowl" finish. I should try that some day.

You can warm the board and/or oil a bit so it penetrates better.

Also, I vaguely remember the oiling rule as:
- once a day for a week
- once a week for a month
- once a month for a year
- and every year thereafter


-- joe

[Mickey Elam]

I like to use hard maple and lyptus - the contrasting light and dark woods is quite attractive. For a board that is going to see real use, end grain is a much better choice than long grain for the cutting surface, but it's more difficult to glue up. The best, cheapest finish I've found is to go to the Wal-Mart pharmacy section and get some mineral oil from the laxative section. This stuff is safe for human consumption and makes a good penetrating finish that won't go rancid or promote bacteria growth.

[John Buzzurro]

Thanks to all for the great advice, and for sharing your work.

Vaughn, I checked out your website. Those cutting boards are incredible. One question for you - I noticed one of the boards has Padauk in it, which is on the toxic woods list. Is this a concern, or should I be OK using something like that as long as there's a good coat of mineral oil on it?

Thanks again,
John

[Dennis Peacock]

Thanks to all for the great advice, and for sharing your work.

Vaughn, I checked out your website. Those cutting boards are incredible. One question for you - I noticed one of the boards has Padauk in it, which is on the toxic woods list. Is this a concern, or should I be OK using something like that as long as there's a good coat of mineral oil on it?

Thanks again,
John

Oooohhhhh....Good question. Besides that, where can one find the toxic woods list?

[Vaughn McMillan]

Hi John -

Like Dennis, I'm curious to see the list you're mentioning. I wasn't aware that padauk was a food hazard. (I know it's not good to breathe the dust, but I hadn't seen anything regarding food toxicity.) I'm not real concerned about this issue in the case of the boards you saw on my site, because I don't think they'll be in contact with food for long enough periods of time absorb any appreciable quantity of bad stuff from the wood. If it's severely poisionous, I'd sure like to know, though.

For something that's going to have a lot of contact with food (particularly wet foods for long periods of time), I think it would be a good idea to stay away from anything that might be questionable. On the other hand, wet foods for long periods of time aren't really the best idea for any wood cutting board. (Time to break out the plastic for that, IMHO.)

Also, in the case of padauk, now that I've seen how porous the wood is, I'm not sure I'd recommend it for a cutting board. It's attractive, but it has lots of little bitty holes in it. For red accents, I've become fond of satine (bloodwood).

BTW, thanks for the compliments. I'm just a beginner. Check out Al Ladd's stuff at www.alladd.com for a humbling experience. His site is something I came across while researching cutting board stuff.

I hope this helps -

- Vaughn

[Lee DeRaud]

BTW, thanks for the compliments. I'm just a beginner. Check out Al Ladd's stuff at www.alladd.com (http://www.alladd.com/) for a humbling experience. His site is something I came across while researching cutting board stuff.Well, "humbling" is certainly one word for it...at the level I'm at, "depressing" might also enter the conversation. :eek:

[Howard Acheson]

Here a list of "Toxic" woods: http://old.mendelu.cz/~horacek/toxic.htm?

That said, the most used woods for cutting boards are maple, beech and birch. Walnut and cherry are frequently used as accent woods. It's best to use closed pored woods if the board will be used for wet (meat/vegetable) cutting. You can use almost anything if the board is used only for dry (bread, etc) goods.

For a finish treatment, use mineral spirits and paraffin. This is the treatment used on commercial boards and chopping blocks. In a double boiler, heat the mineral oil and sort of carve in slivers of paraffin. The proportion is not real critical but something like 6-8 parts mineral oil to one part paraffin is fine. Apply the hot mixture heavily onto the board and let is set overnight. Do it again the next day and again let it set. If all the material is absorbed, do it again until it no longer absorbs the mixture. Let it finally set overnight and then gently scrape off any excess and buff with a soft cloth. Re-treat whenever the board looks dry.

[John Buzzurro]

This is the list (http://www.mimf.com/archives/toxic.htm) I was going by. If I'm reading it corrrectly, it seems to say that extreme reactions to the dust & wood are common. However, the list that Howard posted seems to indicate that reactions are mild and rare. In fact, I found a couple of other sites that indicated the same thing. I should have researched it better before posting that , so I apologize.

[John Zimmerman]

I made a cutting board with legs so it would straddle two burners on my range top front to back.I routed a groove around the top to catch any juices. If I was using only two burners I can have it on the stove chopping ingredients, and I can use it to slice food right out of the pan.

I made it out of soft maple because that's what I had in my shop. I glued it with Titebond and have never finished it. It's survived 13 years of chopping, scouring with hot soappy water, and having a burner turned on under it on more that one occassion. I'm still using it.

John Zimmerman

[Vaughn McMillan]

This is the list (http://www.mimf.com/archives/toxic.htm) I was going by. If I'm reading it corrrectly, it seems to say that extreme reactions to the dust & wood are common. However, the list that Howard posted seems to indicate that reactions are mild and rare. In fact, I found a couple of other sites that indicated the same thing. I should have researched it better before posting that , so I apologize.
Glad to see it doesn't look like a real serious worry. Sounds like as long as you're not getting large amounts of it in your food, padauk should be safe. A good friend of mine who is severely allergic to nuts and nut oils has not had any problems with a board I made her that has quite a bit of walnut in it. (She's so allergic to nuts, the scent of a peanut butter sandwich will cause her sinuses to swell and breathing becomes difficult. If she accidentally ingests a bit of nuts in candy or something, she has to use the adrenaline kit she carries in her purse.)

Thanks for the additional info -

- Vaughn

[Keith Outten]

I'm gonna go against the grain here and make a reccomendation against using wood for cutting boards. I am aware of the differences of opinion concerning which wood species are best, worst and the different types of finishing products that are commonly used. I also believe that wood isn't always the best material for every project, something we all don't want to believe but it is true.

Wood is a fiborus material which is damaged with each stroke of a knife. Clearly some of the material will contaminate any food being prepared on a wooden surface. Rather than using a kitchen tool that induces unnecessary risks of rancid contamination or even an alergic reaction to your familly or guests it might be best to hang your wooden board on the wall as a decoration and use a more appropriate material for food preparation.

There is a huge selection of plastics and solid surface materials available that are more suitable for cutting boards and are dish washer safe as a bonus. Most of these materials are easilly machined using woodworking saws, routers and sanders.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Keith, going against the grain in a woodworking forum? There are way too many potential bad jokes waiting to happen right there, I tell ya. :)

Although I have at least a dozen wood cutting boards on hand at any given time, I gotta admit that my go-to board in the kitchen is a plastic one I got at Ikea. I like the fact that it can go in the dishwasher, and I don't care how scratched up it gets. I've read some interesting articles on the pros and cons of plastic vs. wood cutting boards as they relate to biological hazards, and it's an interesting debate as to which is best for food preperation. I suspect there are tests that can prove either side of the argument correct. Depends on who's writing the article, I'd guess. I know it works that way in the software business.

One of the main reasons I started putting holes in the boards that I sell is so people can hang them on the wall for decoration. 100% of the people who see them say they wouldn't want to cut on them, but quite a few of them still want to own one. They do make nice non-cutting serving boards, though, with few (if any) side effects to worry about. (I know...and I have tests to prove it.) ;)

- Vaughn

[Ian Abraham]

A bit of light reading here...

Studies seem to indicate that NEW plastic and wood boards are similar in terms of bacteria, both are acceptable.

http://www.hi-tm.com/Documents/Cutboard.html

But once the plastic board has been used for a while the scratches harbour more bacterial gunk and is more difficult to clean, while the wood still seems to resist germs.

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infcuttingboard.shtm

Most important thing seems to be to wash and let the wooden board dry after use.

But I also agree that if you go to the trouble of making a fancy board from exotic wood it should be for show or maybe as a serving board.

Cheers

Ian

[J.R. Rutter]

For finish, I've been using a mix of mineral oil and beeswax. Apply warm, buffs out nicely.

[Greg Tatum]

I do the opposite of most folks when using cutting boards...I will use a plastic board for veggies/fruit and the wood boards for meat and here is why...some veggies/fruits will stain a light-colored board quickly like red peppers and pommegranite while others will impart their flavor such as garlic, onion and any pickled veg...these flavors tend to linger in wood and less so on the plastic....since the bacteria on meats are typically thin-walled membranous fluid-filled organisms and wood boards are porous, even if small pored, the wood acts kinda like a dessicant breaking the membrane, absorbing the fluid and then drying out thereby killing the pesky little germ...hot soapy water is the best deterent to a contaminated board in any case....