Surfacing End Grain Cutting Boards

[Dennis Peacock]

I make a lot of end-grain cutting boards.....Belt sander with 80 grit to start, then 120....Faster than running them through a planer and hoping they come out without too much blow-out damage on the edges. Well, at least that's what I do.

[al ladd]

I've literally made thousands, as it was mainstay of my livelihood for about 20 years. The internet and the cult-like craze of "make you own end grain cutting boards for fun and profit" and the race to the bottom of Et*y and Custom**de.com has more or less killed that end of my business. If you do lots of them, abrasive cost becomes significant using sanding as mainstay, and you often end up with deep marks from earlier grits that won't come clean. Also, if you do boards with different woods, the abrasive cuts differently into different woods, so you can never get the whole board clean.

I quickly learned to plane them. One major aid is a sled, (3/4 mdf is fine) about 6-8 inches longer than the longest board, and as wide as will fit through the planer on a cant. The sled should have a cleat towards the back end, but this cleat should be several inches in front of the sled's end. The sled will mitigate the effects of the bed rollers, and give you something big and less scary to hold on to. I line my sled with very coarse abrasive cloth to grab the board, and provide just a hint of cushioning. Take light cuts and flip the board end for end often to get as flat as possible. It's critical to roundover all edges first (or glue sacrificial pieces, but that's much more time consuming, and you're going to round over the edges anyway, right?). For short boards, glue two together end to end. Take light cuts, at as severe an angle to the knives as will fit through your planer. If you have a straight knifed planer consider carbide knives. I had a four knife planer for many years, and I'd sharpen and replace knives in pairs (1st and 3rd, 2nd and 4th). Those little diamond hones are very helpful for extending time between grindings. I'd say about 1 in 500-1000 blew up, always from being insufficiently flat, and not being aware of that, almost always when my helper was doing them. It would shake us all up, but no one ever got even remotely injured. The sled is a bit like an air bag in that respect.

Of course a Byrd head makes it a lot easier --and a whole lot quieter, and they're carbide and so last and last. Since '08 I've had a 24" Bridgewood with a Byrd head, and dial in feed speed. I follow up with a wide belt sander with 120 grit only. Raise grain with water, and orbital sand with 120 .

[Gail Ludwig]

I used a belt sander for a long time to flatten. But I would have problems getting the board perfectly flat. So, I bought a new sander—the big 6in Bosch with dual mode. I found that using the turbo mode sander with 80 grit paper worked MUCH better than the belt sander. Like others have said, if you are careful in cross cutting your boards, they will be pretty flat when glued. But, I have messed up a time or two and found that using a router sled got things flat pretty quickly. So now I use my Bosch sander and/or router sled. Best of both worlds!

[Steve Demuth]

If you're making just a couple, for your own use, then I'd recommend careful glue up to minimize the surface variation, followed by hand planing with a block plane. If you happen to have a good low angle jack, then start with that and finish with the block plane. But really, with a properly sharp, well-tuned block plane, it's not a big deal to get to a perfectly good, and visually attractive surface.

I would not surface end grain with a straight blade planer. With care about depth of cut, and by rounding edges before you plane, you can make it work about 99% of the time, but when it doesn't, it can go bad rather spectacularly, and the results can be dangerous to an operator and to the machine (assuming it's a light luncbox sort of machine - you probably wouldn't damage a big guy with some real mass in the mechanism).

[Robert Engel]

I think you can glue on a thick sacrificial backer.

or you can use a router sled to flatten followed by a belt sander.

[Wes Grass]

As I understand it, the reason low angle planes are technically classed as 'block planes', is because they were designed for use on end grain butcher blocks ... cutting boards ...

Or maybe they're just cheaper, and easier for a non-woodworker to sharpen and set than a typical bench plane.

[Joe Hendershott]

Not wanting to veer too far off topic but since it is a captive audience of cutting board experts- what pads or feet to you use? Details matter and never do see many with good bumpers on the bottom?

[Stephen Bandirola]

Don't need any kind of bumpers or feet. You want to be able to flip it over and use both sides. End grain cutting boards stay put on the counter just fine, and if needed just put a kitchen towel down first.

[Patrick Kane]

Forgot to mention, IF you intend to plane end grain, i found wetting the surface 10-20 seconds before planing made a decent difference. That is an old-timer trick for minimizing tearout on figured material.

[Jim Becker]

Don't need any kind of bumpers or feet. You want to be able to flip it over and use both sides. End grain cutting boards stay put on the counter just fine, and if needed just put a kitchen towel down first.

Additionally, feet can, in some cases, cause a sag from use over time. Flat on the counter is best. If slipping is an issue, a thin, non-slip material can be used under the board. My "working board" has a lip on one end extending downward that keeps it from moving laterally to the right with the way I orient it on my island surface...kinda like a bench-hook in reverse.

[Prashun Patel]

The odd times I have to make these (I hate doing it) I run them through my planer. Light passes as mentioned.

The issue is blow out near the end. That will ruin the trailing row of blocks. It is therefore highly advisable to glue on a sacrificial rail to the end that is grain oriented horizontally either (ok) perpendicular to the feed direction (best) parallel to the feed direction). Running the sacrifical row perpendicular will still tear out the corner, but not as viciously or dangerously as vertical end grain. STAND OUT OF THE FEED PATH.

Sacrificial infeed and outfeed rows will also reduce snipe.