Cutting Board wood

[jason lambert]

I want to make some cutting boards I have maple, walnut, purpleheart around but I know walnut and perplehert is toxic to some amount. My question is I see pwople use it but should I?

Also what is a good list of woods to use for these, I am looking for something red I see in some of the boards?

[Chris Padilla]

I know David Marks used exactly what you have to make some end-grain cutting boards/butcher block type of tops. He also had some cherry, I think.

I think you can use just about any wood...just orient the end-grain up for longevity. Most "toxic" woods are only "toxic" in sawdust form when it can enter your respiratory system but some folks have skin allergies. Rosewood is a good example of a wood that bothers a lot of people's epidermis.

What you oil the wood with might be more important that what species of wood you use. They have special "salad bowl" oils out there but I think plain old mineral oil suffices.

[Eric Garner]

I use walnut, maple, and purple heart for my boards and have never had a problem. I have done a good bit of research online, but I guess you'll have to make the call if you are comfortable using them in your boards. Seems that for Walnut the toxic chemical juglone is mostly in the bark and fruit. Got the quote below from this web site:

http://www.cookiebabyinc.com/poisonousplants/blackwalnut.html
"The chemical juglone has not been found in appreciable amounts in the wood."

Purpleheart has been known to cause skin reactions for certain people who are allergic to it. Same can be said for latex products and peanuts.

[Al Mock MD]

Hey Jason, I seem to have a really sensitive stomach/lungs when it comes to purpleheart. And boy, those splinters love to make their way into my fingers. I go full-out when using purpleheart, rosewood and bocote with a respirator, heavy dust collection and an ambient filter. I've found that if I leave out any one of these three systems, I start becoming nauseous after an hour or so. All that gear is all worth it to me, as I simply love that wood. Best of luck!
[quote=jason lambert;807514] purpleheart around but I know walnut and perplehert is toxic to some amount. quote]

[Peter Quinn]

As a former professional chef 'food safe certified' I see a lot of beautiful cutting boards being made that leave me scratching my head. The inclusion of attractive wood known to be toxic to some degree is often justified an the basis of "its only a little toxic' or 'I'm not really going to use it to prepare food, its just a show piece". How much toxcicity is too much and to whom?

When I saw apprentices in my kitchen attempting to justify serving food that had been in some way compromised (dirt, drops of bleach, salad stored below driping chicken, things that were on the floor 'only for a second' ,I've seen it all) I made them an offer. I'm gonna make you a drink, then I'm gonna pee in it! But just a little. I'll add the pee with an eye dropper and you tell me when to stop. How much of my pee would you like in your drink? Most said none!

So if the wood is toxic, but just a little, how much is too much? My knives are very sharp and when I use a wooden cutting board in the kitchen it invariably produces a little saw dust. Not much mind you, but a little. I only prepare food on boards made of safe nuetral wood with a finish that starts life non toxic, generally mineral or lemon oil. I've seen suggestions that the wood should be flooded with an oil/mineral spirits mix because the spirits will draw in the oil and eventually evaporate...really? Let's hope so, cause my can of mineral spirits says "Deadly poison, do not injest"

In a professional environment there are different standards of saftey for direct food contact surfaces (eg: cutting boards), indirect food contact surfaces (eg:work tables) and non food contact surfaces (eg: floors). Any board which has the potential to be used for direct contact should IMHO be held to the highest standard. There are no laws beyond common sense governing what you do in your home for your own use.

I personally resist the temptation to create something attractive from materials I would rather not injest thus eliminating doubt and hope from the equation. I don't hope my cutting boards are safe, I know it.

[Rod Torgeson]

Jason......This is a cutting board that I made for my daughter. It is Maple and Walnut. The strips are 3/4 inch wide and 1 1/2 inches thick. After the glue up(I used Titebond II) I ran it through the drum sander until flat then touched it up with the random orbit sander. The cutting board is 20 x 17 inches. Like mentioned before, I used mineral oil(two coats) for the finish. The top side is chamfered and the bottom has non skid feet since she has a tile counter top.

Rod<---in Appleton, WA

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

While it's true that black walnut and some of the lumber you mentioned are indeed some what toxic I rather suspect that the amount you need to ingest to cause any reaction at all is enormous compared to the trace elements you get from chopping a few veggies on a bread board.

I'll bet there is more risk from lead in the water leaching from the copper pipes. Or any of the other brazillion number of pollutants in the air and water and lord only knows what was in the fields where the food was grown.

While ploughing a field in northern Maine I used to come across fist size chunks of arsenic that the farmers used to use to kill the potato bugs.

What are ya going to do?

[Jim Heffner]

The question to you is....are you going to use the cutting board or is this
just decorative item for display of your woodworking skill? If you are going to use the cutting board for it's true intended purpose....definately use the maple, you won't have to worry about anything toxic with it.It will last a lifetime thru hard usage and still be around to pass down to your kids someday.

[Joe Chritz]

Unless you plan on eating the board you are good to go. Walnut is used often in boards. Purpleheart less so, but it isn't unheard of. The sawdust shouldn't be ingested but you won't pick up anything bad from the board. If you do you did something very very wrong somewhere.

My two favorites for boards are maple/cherry and maple/walnut.

Joe

[Don Eddard]

I agree with Joe. Eating a whole purpleheart cutting board may not be healthy for some people, but worrying about eating the trace amounts of wood that might find its way into prepared food is going overboard, IMHO. There's more risk from the potential bacteria and other crud that might be on the salad in the first place.

And Peter, I'll take a few drops. ;) Urine is sterile, after all. I'm not interested in chugging a cup of it, but a few drops would have no impact on me.

[jim gossage]

As a former professional chef 'food safe certified' I see a lot of beautiful cutting boards being made that leave me scratching my head. The inclusion of attractive wood known to be toxic to some degree is often justified an the basis of "its only a little toxic' or 'I'm not really going to use it to prepare food, its just a show piece". How much toxcicity is too much and to whom?...
I personally resist the temptation to create something attractive from materials I would rather not injest thus eliminating doubt and hope from the equation. I don't hope my cutting boards are safe, I know it.

i have a slightly different perspective than Peter has here. i am a physician, and believe that the question "how toxic?" is an important one. many substances that we consume are potentially toxic when taken in too large of quantities - while in smaller quantities they are safe or even medicinal. aspirin, penicillin, and even vitamin C can cause problems in large doses. just because something is "toxic" does not mean that its main side effect is death. it just means that it has potential to cause harm - perhaps diarrhea or skin irritation. 325 mg of aspirin might help your headache, while a small overdose may cause stomach upset and a large overdose may kill you. so "how toxic?" and "how much?" really are germane questions.

the toxicity of black walnut is a good example here. while it has been reported to cause a disease called laminitis in horses, it seems to be safe in humans. in fact, it has multiple medicinal uses. don't forget, we eat walnuts all the time and use walnut extract in cooking! see this link for more information:
http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/PrintablePages/herbMonograph/0,11475,4080,00.html

finally, i use the following woods in my cutting boards:
walnut
maple
beech
ash
yellow heart
purple heart
padauk
cherry

[Mike Cutler]

I want to make some cutting boards I have maple, walnut, purpleheart around but I know walnut and perplehert is toxic to some amount. My question is I see pwople use it but should I?

Also what is a good list of woods to use for these, I am looking for something red I see in some of the boards?

Jason

I made a cutting board out of Bubinga. Here is a link to it. It has a very appealing reddish brown tone to it.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=61157


In my research of cutting boards, because I had planned to sell them, I learned that the "traditional butcher block appearance", end grain up, was undesirable on a board that was actually going to be used for food preparation.
It seems that the with the grain orientated so that the end grain is the cutting surface, the board is able to trap a lot of soaps cleaners, and food residue in the grain structure and minimize it's ability to kill bacteria naturally by blocking the grain and pore structure of the wood.
I love the appearance of butcher block,and understand the appeal for minimizing the damage by cutting across the grain. I was coming at it from a different approach though.

The wood of choice, or rather the one most referred to on the FDA website, is maple. Believe it or not, there are more than a few federal guidelines concerning cutting boards.

[Jeff Hallam]

Just thought I'd throw in an example of some boards I made this past Christmas. Purpleheart, walnut, and hard maple. We have been using a purpleheart/maple one in our own kitchen and it has done very well so far. The grain is so tight that residue is easily wiped off after use. I used mineral oil to finish mine, although I would consider the Wood Whisperer's varnish method if I make any in the future.

84719

[Pat Germain]

FYI, I used the Wood Whisperer's varnish method on multiple cutting boards I made for Christmas. I was having some trouble at first. Turned out my garage shop was just too cool for the finish (duh!). I brought them inside for finishing and things went much better. The smell was almost non-existent.

I used a Watco salad bowl finish I got from my local Borg. It's kind of expensive, but when you get the finish right, it's pretty swell stuff. It looks good, it's tough and it beads water right off when your washing the board.

I used maple and walnut on my boards. As I recall, there wasn't any 8/4 purple heart immediately available at the time. I'd like to make the next batch of boards with purple heart. It looks more interesting and it's a great hardwood.

[Vito Baratta]

FYI, I used the Wood Whisperer's varnish method on multiple cutting boards I made for Christmas. I was having some trouble at first. Turned out my garage shop was just too cool for the finish (duh!). I brought them inside for finishing and things went much better. The smell was almost non-existent.

I used a Watco salad bowl finish I got from my local Borg. It's kind of expensive, but when you get the finish right, it's pretty swell stuff. It looks good, it's tough and it beads water right off when your washing the board.

I used maple and walnut on my boards. As I recall, there wasn't any 8/4 purple heart immediately available at the time. I'd like to make the next batch of boards with purple heart. It looks more interesting and it's a great hardwood.

I also used Marc Spag's method with the thinned salad bowl finish and to this day, several months later, the boards are sitting in my garage because they still have a varnish odor if you sniff them. I never used the boards, they are just sitting there.

Please don't take my comment the wrong way, however since my goal is not to bring down Marc Spag in any way. I am a big fan of his, I have a lot of respect for him, I enjoy his videos and I think he is a very skilled woodworker. This method just didn't work for me, but then again maybe I did something wrong, who knows.

I think it all comes down to which method works best for you.

Regarding the type of woods to be used, I mainly stick with hard maple, however I think any tight grained wood would be fine. I see cutting boards being sold on Ebay that are made with just any type of wood they can find scraps from including Red Oak which I would never use due to the very open pores.

[Pat Germain]

^^ What kind of varnish did you use, Vito? The Watco finish I used has very little smell right out of the can. After drying, there's no smell at all.

Although Marc recommends thinning the finish, I did not because the Watco directions state, "DO NOT THIN!". It's probably pre-thinned which just means I'm paying for a less-concentrated product. :rolleyes: