[OP]
Member
Asked to make a thick cutting board with 13/16 wood my thought was to just rip the stock little over the desired thickness and glue up the faces. Then I heard the that the edges were a poor surface for cutting boards. I have trouble accepting that view Any thoughts?
Bill
Contributor
Bill,Originally Posted by Bill Gebhardt
Purists will tell you that end grain boards are the only way to go. I can tell you that my mother used a hard maple cutting board for over 20 years and it looked fine. So don’t sweat it.
I’ve made several end grain boards and enjoyed making them. There are some claimed benefits that sound plausible to me:
1. When a knife cuts across edge grain, it severs fibers. When a knife cuts into end grain, it separates the fibers and the fibers will “self repair”.
2. In my view, end grain will really soak up oil and wax. My board hardly ever needs oiling.
Using end grain opens up limitless design possibilities. I recently made a board as a wedding gift for two engineers that commemorated their wedding in Baudot (an old data communication protocol).
Finally, doing an edge grain board is a lot easier.
Contributor
Bill,
Glue up the faces is fine, aka, exactly what is in your posted plan. The face of a board and the end of a board are essentially the same as far as wood is concerned. If the log was cut at 90 degrees, that edge grain would have been the face grain. Think of it this way, lets assume you have boards that are 13/16, and you rip them down to 13/16 inch strips, which is the face and which is the edge grain.
Like Roger mentions, end grain cutting boards don't show he knife marks as much. They are also easier on the knife blade. To make an end-grain, you basically are going to do your first glue up, then crosscut you board, flip the new strips 90 degrees and glue them up again, exposing the end grain. Then hope you have a drum sander as end grain does not fair well in most planers as they tend to chip out the end grain. There are some tricks people have used but I have not tried.
Distraction could lead to dismemberment!
Contributor
I have made a few long grain cutting boards that have worked just fine. Much depends on how hard you use it and for what. My end grain cutting boards (not made by me) are much heavier, but they are also thicker. In a pinch, I took a solid piece of wood and just used that. I have seen some expensive fancy cutting boards that are also pretty much just a board with something fancy done to them.
Make one as you like and give it a try to see how you like it. If you "get into it", then maybe try an end grain board, but for normal home use, long grain is fine. You can even purchase long grain cutting board kits.
Contributor
The first thing I ever made from hardwood was a face grain cutting board from spalted hard maple. Hand sawn, hand planed from 3/4" stock I picked up at a farm auction. It's been used in our kitchen for over 40 years and is still quite functional, although after multiple refinishings, it's down to about 7/16" thick now.
Contributor
We have a red oak scrap which has been in continuous use as a bread board for 14 or 15 years. It's about 7" wide and 18" long, so it's just the right shape for a loaf. I sanded it down or ran it through the planer once several years ago, but otherwise it has had no maintenance and has been cut onto with a bread knife almost daily, and it still looks fine and is 100% functional. I've never made an end grain cutting board but I may give it a try sometime. You'll be fine with the design you had in mind. I had a customer at the sawmill who used to make hundreds of cutting boards a year and sell them on Etsy as a retirement gig, and they were all made with long grain strips of contrasting colors of woods. He had a lot of very favorable reviews.
Member
Edge grain boards are fine. They get marked up with heavy use, sand them a bit, re-coat and good as new. This would be a good opportunity to try a thicker piece of wood, too. Maybe an 8/4 even! Use Titebond 3.
Lots of videos on YT. I'm partial to The Wood Plank.
Contributor
LOML has an edge grain board that she made in middle school shop that’s been used daily since. her daughter just finished college. End grain can be cooler but about 4x more work and requires a surprising amount of material. In other words, both do great.
"You can observe a lot just by watching."
--Yogi Berra
Contributor
I've been trying to make some end grain boards the past couple of weeks. Christmas presents. There is a fella in Russia that makes all kinds of amazing cutting boards. He calls them "3D". You can buy what he has, order one any way you want, or if you want to build one, you can download his plans and make them yourself. The dimensions are all metric, and it's obvious that English is not his first language, but I muddled through a couple and they turned out OK.... He has many videos on YouTube and goes by MTM Wood. I need to figure out how to rip better as the corners suck. Here's my latest attempt.
Moderator
The terminology in some of this thread seems a bit confusing. This is what I've always heard for the names of the parts of a board:
parts_of_a_board.jpg
Someone else might use different terms.
The grain on the Face and Edge is either identical or not, depending on how the board is cut from the log. In this picture of a flat/plain sawn board, the grain on the left edge and the face is identical, as it would be for any true rift sawn board, not as much for a strip cut from the center of the board illustrated. There can be a big difference in structure if the board is truly quarter sawn, especially with certain species, but for diffuse or even semi-ring porous wood with fine grain such as cherry, the structural difference would be insignificant regardless of how it was sawn.
The differences between an end grain cutting board and a face or edge grain cutting board might be significant for some species, but back to your idea, I think ripping and gluing up the faces would work fine. I've made cutting boards and a cutting board table exactly like that from maple and we've been using them for over 40 years. BTW, I just checked and I had planed all of the boards to 13/16"! I'm making some cutting boards now using that exact technique - after they are glued up I'll run them through the drum sander to flatten.
What kind of wood do you have for this?
(Photo "borrowed" from Rockler)
JKJ
Member
Nice work, Michael!
As far as the material goes, I forgot to mention, use a tight grained wood. Porous wood like Oak will be more likely to get stuff lodged in the grain.
The big difference between a flat grained board and an end grain board is the time is about twice as long to make the end grained board. You glue up all the pieces twice. You make an extra long end grained board, then cross cut it down every 2" and flip them on end and then re-glue them. For a better arrangement, you flip every other piece over, and then end-for-end (the grain will mirror up). Then lots more sanding than a flat grained board would take, too. Walnut is an excellent wood to start with. Add some strips of Cherry or Padauk for accent!
Member
Edges make just fine cutting boards, breadboards, charcuterie boards for the average person. If the person getting the board is a more serious chef, they probably will use it for every meal, and will have nice knives to go with it. If that's the case, endgrain is likely the better choice.
I usually make edge boards as gifts for my clients. I save the cutoffs and at the end of the year have enough for a few "chaos pattern" endgrain boards that are unique for a sale or as a high quality gift.
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