Looking for red colored WOOD for cutting board

[Matthew Curtis]

What are some options for red colored wood for use in cutting boards?

[Bill Dufour]

Redwood will too soft.
Bill D

[roger wiegand]

I used a stripe of bloodwood (Brosimum rubescens) in the one I just made. Great color, doesn't fade with light.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

What are some options for red colored wood for use in cutting boards?

Honduran Mahogany (the same we have here in Brazil) is a great "red wood" and I think it is food safe. Most of the furniture in our home were made from Mahogany as it is easy to work as well.

[Mike Henderson]

Bloodwood keeps it's color well with age and is deep red.

Mike

[Jerry Wright]

Most reddish woods I know turn brown with sunlight and air.

[Chris Hachet]

Bloodwood keeps it's color well with age and is deep red.

Mike

I will give some of that a try.

[Roy Petersen]

This seems to have a decent list of potential toxicity:
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-allergies-and-toxicity/

Both Honduras Mahogany and Bloodwood are questionable for food safety, according to that. Bloodwood will react to light eventually and darken.

You might consider food safe stain?
http://chris-reilly.org/blog/food-safe-wood-stain/

[John C Cox]

Heartwood birch and heartwood maple are both reddish/orangey but they don't turn dark brown in light like cherry does.

[Steve Eure]

I have used pauduk on some cutting boards and a few other projects. It has retained its red color so far. Long term I don't have any experience with yet. It does darken a bit with mineral oil and beeswax though just like all other woods with this finish.

[Matthew Curtis]

So what ones are food safe? It seems that all of them have some irritant aspect to them.

[Matthew Curtis]

So is the chance of a reaction to these woods when used in cutting boards so small, that it is not worth worrying about? I see walnut use all the time, without any issues.

[Ben Zara]

1) Nobody is gonna have an allergic reaction from a cutting board.

2) Avoid any finishes labeled as "cutting board" or "salad bowl" finish. All finishes and stains, including the heavy duty polyurethane you would use to seal a floor are food safe once they cure.

The last time I checked nobody ever died from eating a cookie that feel on the hardwood floor.

3) All wood will go brownish eventually, bloodheart may age a bit better than padauk.

[Matthew Curtis]

That was s what I thought. Any suggestions on gray color wood as well?

[Mike OMelia]

I had a freind make my wife and end cut walnut cutting board (he likes doing that, me, not so much). She is an Alabama fan, so I gave him some bloodwood and asked him to inlay the big "A". Beautiful when we got it. But I can't get my wife to use the other side. Its still red two years later. But stained dark with food stains.

I don't think I'd use it to make a whole cutting board. Its too hard. And, it will leak color, some. Its bloodwood!

[Ronald Blue]

This seems to have a decent list of potential toxicity:
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-ar...-and-toxicity/ (http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-allergies-and-toxicity/)

Both Honduras Mahogany and Bloodwood are questionable for food safety, according to that. Bloodwood will react to light eventually and darken.

You might consider food safe stain?
http://chris-reilly.org/blog/food-safe-wood-stain/

This chart is for when you are milling the wood. Air borne wood particles can be hazardous but the chances of any of these species being an issue in a cutting board are almost non existent.

[Ben Zara]

For naturally gray wood, the heartwood of maple can have huge gray sections. Alot of people see it as a defect but if you want gray, that would be your best bet.

Ash sometimes has grayish coloring as well, especially when quatersawn. But the ash is still more brownish than gray.

Search for "country maple", that's what maple with gray heartwood is sometimes called.