Would this work?

[Brian Penning]

I have quite a bit of 1" thick maple.
Anything wrong or could be potential problems with gluing up some pieces face to face to make a 2" or even 3" thick cutting board?
I'd use Titebond III and stagger the edge joints.
TIA for any and all replies.

[Brad Noble]

I don't see any problem from here. Got a jointer and a planer?

Brad

[Ralph Barhorst]

It would work OK, but you might consider ripping your maple to 2" or 3" wide and then glue the faces together.

You might also consider making an end grain cutting board.

[Peter Quinn]

Sounds good. I like to avoid butt ends in the field personally, but you could use shorts that way. Some finger joint butt ends or use splines or biscuits.

[Howard Acheson]

I have quite a bit of 1" thick maple.
Anything wrong or could be potential problems with gluing up some pieces face to face to make a 2" or even 3" thick cutting board?
I'd use Titebond III and stagger the edge joints.
TIA for any and all replies.

Your biggest problem would be getting sufficient force on the glue up to ensure a tight and secure joint. For hardwoods like maple you want to get about 200 psi for the best joint. For a small cutting board of 8" x 12" you would have 96 square inches and need about 20,000 pounds of force. That's ten tons. A standard 3/4" pipe clamp exerts about 1000 psi so you would need 20 with cauls to spread out the force evenly.

So, if you have the wood, I would suggest that you cut it into 1 1/2" to 2" strips, glue the strips together and end up with a standard cutting board. Your board will be more stable and less likely to warp than trying to make a face glued board.

[Eric DeSilva]

...in addition to the other comments, I'd note that most chefs with a decent set of knives would prefer to chop and slice into end grain. If you look at all the high end cutting boards--Boos Blocks, for example--they are all end grain.