End Grain Cuttiong boards

[James Jayko]

I've made several end grain cutting boards from excess / scrap lumber. The last two were cherry and maple. Both of these two got 3-4 heavy coats of mineral oil and 2 coats of the cutting board conditioner (assuming beeswax and mineral oil blend). Both looked great, but warped substantially and even showed some cracks pretty quickly. Neither was from the very end of the boards with any obvious checking, though that could have played a role and I missed it.

Is there anything else you do with these kinds of boards that see heavy use to keep them from warping / checking / cracking?

[Andrew Hughes]

Make them thicker somewhere between 1 3/4 and 2 inches thick. That’s my suggestion

Good Luck

[al ladd]

Scale matters here, both of the overall finished board and the pieces that make it up. The larger the pieces and the larger the board, the more likely problems are. The villain is pieces reaching equilibrium moisture content different from whatever they were at at the time they were glued up, which they will do quickly for end grain surfaces. large pieces can have significant distortion from tangential vs radial shrinkage differential caused by dimensional changes as pieces reach EMC, that can be compounded by the way one often puts pieces together in end grain boards. Maple is particularly troublesome with a large tangential vs radial shrinkage ratio and large shrinkage values period.

One technique that can help is to let the cross cut rows spend a few days stickered to allow shrinkage to occur (assuming were talking shrinkage causing the problem--a fairly safe assumption), and then gluing the rows into a larger board. You may find the rows have bowed, in which case it's best to "joint and plane" , that is --straighten them (usually done on the table saw) before gluing up the rows.

Andrews suggestion for thicker will mostly just slow down whatever bad things might happen, though by perhaps keeping the whole board from reaching as low a MC under extreme conditions as a thinner board would, it can prevent cracking that might happen on a thinner board.

[Ron Citerone]

I have only made several end grain boards. I have made dozens of edge grain boards. The ideas stated make great sense to me. I would add that I always put rubber feet on the bottom of mine so they are off the counter and not setting on any water. Have not had any warping or separating problems.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Don’t know if this fits your situation or not. Made a batch HM end grain some time ago 2x2 pieces. 6 each 12x18 and 6x12. Off as gifts. With mason jar of mineral oil-beeswax goop

Only one ever had problems. 12x18. After wash and rinse DID NOT dry it. Stood on edge on countertop to air dry. Water ran down, pooled. Pretty impressive how that moisture was absorbed along that side. Dramatic warping and fracturing. Mason jar unopened. Just stood there and shook my head when asked why it failed

[George Yetka]

I think the most important rule with cutting boards is all surfaces need to dry together. 1-1/2 thick on end grain 3/4 on face/edge. Outside of that I use aclimated wood.

Ive had 3 failures out of the 100+ I've completed
1) Was put in dishwasher.
2) was left in sink with water running on 1 side for an extended period.
3) has a very small seperation 1/8" or so long but remains in service.(im not sure of the cause of this one)

[James Jayko]

After wash and rinse DID NOT dry it. Stood on edge on countertop to air dry. Water ran down, pooled.

I'm thinking this is what happened here as well. I also cut and glued up immediately (it was kiln dried so I didn't think much of it, so it may be the combination of the way it was washed / dried and what Al said above. I know she wouldn't put it in the dishwasher...

[Kent A Bathurst]

I'm thinking this is what happened here as well. I also cut and glued up immediately (it was kiln dried so I didn't think much of it, so it may be the combination of the way it was washed / dried and what Al said above. I know she wouldn't put it in the dishwasher...

Well then, not all idiot close friends are my close friends. Good to know.

It really doesn't require much to keep them in good stead. Gently wash, quick rinse, dry immediately, stand on edge on a dry surface to allow air movement to all sides. Took 5x to type this as it takes to do it. And if the surface looks dry, or 60 days, whichever comes first, slap some mineral oil on it.

Just to put oil in the pores so they cannot absorb water. Explain the physics to the owner.