How to make a cutting board

After having a doizen or so comercial cutting boards split and thrown into trash I want to make my own. Can someone give me guidance how to make it so it won't split, how to finish it, if it at all, etc. Most important for me is it shoiuld be very durable as I don't want to make it every month. I plan using maple to make it.

Reply to
Sasha
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Make sure the wood is thoroughly dry, straight, and flat. Then use a waterproof glue -- not merely water *resistant*. A urea-formaldehyde glue, such as DAP Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue, would be the best choice IMHO.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Is this a cutting board for 'work' or 'looks'? If it is for work, a slab of polyethelene is the best choice. Won't hurt your knives and is food safe. Wooden boards need to be looked after with more care and make sure you use food-safe adhesives and finishes. That also means NEVER to use peanut oil to finish your board.

Reply to
Robatoy

Good advice given but for best results don't let it stay wet, rinse it and either immediately dry it off or stand it up on edge so the water will run off.

Reply to
Leon

Leon wrote: ...

And _never_ put it in a dishwasher -- that's probably what killed the others if were to venture a guess.

--

Reply to
dpb

No, the first consideration for cutting board glues is whether or not it is safe to use in contact with food. I can find no cite that the glue above is FDA approved.

The glue most often reccomened is Titebond -II or -III.

D.

Reply to
Derek Lyons

I guess you should have looked a little harder. The technical bulletin listed at the manufacturer's web site specifically recommends it for use in cutting boards.

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>The glue most often reccomened is Titebond -II or -III.

Depends on who's doing the recommending...

Reply to
Doug Miller

Cutting board or chopping board (block)?

I have each. One cutting board of maple no more than 3/4" thick (maybe less) about 12" x 18"; one of hickory that is bigger and about 1" thick; one chopping board/block of hickory about 1 1/2" thick by 7" x 7". Chopping boards are meant for whacking as well as slicing, cutting boards for slicing.

All are glued up with type 2 yellow glue. All are finished with boiled linseed oil.

The smaller maple board is made of three boards edge glued. One side has a "blood groove" routed out near the perimeter with a 1/2" core box bit, other side is smooth. It stays on a counter standing up where it is handy for slicing bread, etc. It was made at least 16 years ago.

The hickory board is made from numerous 1" x 1" strips. It lives on a slide under the counter top over the trash bag so trimmings can just be pushed off into the trash. It can easily be lifted out and put on the counter. It was made 8-9 years ago. Double sided just like the smaller maple one.

The hickory block has end grain as the cutting surface. It was made by gluing up seven or eight 1" x1" strips of hickory, each 24" long. I made three of those then cross cut them into 1 1/2" pieces and glued those pieces together. Extra was used to turn four small feet so it stands maybe 1-2" above the counter where it lives...handy for slicing an onion or tomato, whacking or trimming a chop. It too was made 8-9 years ago; in fact, I made

15 of them as gifts. Mine is still in first rate shape, presume the others are as well.

Someone mentioned using polyethelene...not a bad choice at all but the consensus is that wood harbors the least bacteria. Its prettier too :)

The wood boards really don't need a finish but I use BLO anyway just to make them pretty. Yes, it wears off. Food safe? Yes when dry. Type 2 glue food safe? Don't know but I sure wouldn't worry about it being so...neither the glue nor the BLO are going to be sucked into whatever you cut.

As far as splitting goes, if the wood is seasoned when you use it and the glue surfaces are straight and smooth it isn't going to split. To clean, rinse and dry. Use a bit of soap THEN rinse and dry if need be. No dishwasher though.

dadiOH

Reply to
dadiOH

There was an interesting segment on (I think) America's Test Kitchen about wood vs. plastic cutting boards. They took swab samples from both types of cutting boards and put them into Petri culture dishes and watched what grew. They took samples from boards that were washed different ways, brand new boards, and boards that were cleaned and stored for a few days. All of the boards showed that there was bacteria living on the boards - including the brand new ones.

The interesting part was that the wood boards that were cleaned and put away for a while had their bacteria populations actually decrease. Something in the wood was fighting the bacteria, and they're not sure what it is.

The plastic boards are almost self-healing and that's a two-edged sword. It keeps the surface essentially intact for longer, but the cuts close up around whatever you were cutting and the closed semi- healed cuts protect the bacteria from the washing.

Wood boards do need to be handled a bit more carefully, but I think it's a very worthwhile trade off.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Tried & True makes a polymerized linseed oil with no driers. Completely non-toxic. A chemist I know says he wouldn't trust the "safe when dry" finishes if they were to come in contact with acidic foods, such as tomatoes. I don't know if he's right or not, but with non-toxic finishes out there, why take the chance?

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

Yes use Maple. You want Hard Maple or Sugar Maple. Assuming you buy boards that are surfaced flat, rip them to a width about 1/8" wider than the thickness of board you want. Using different thickness boards can add visual interest by making different width strips. If the rips are clean enough then just flip them on edge and do a glue up using Titebond II. Titebond III is a little more water secure but is the wrong color for Maple. Make sure each board fits tight along its entire length. If the rips are not super clean, then joint the ripped faces. If you have any gaps, then joint them away.You may need to rip a little wider to account for thickness loss of jointer. You want the cutting face to be the edges of the boards.

Assuming you are going 1 to 1 1/2" thick, only glue up about 4 or 5 strips at a time to be sure you get good clamping pressure. Make as many of the sub slabs as you need for the final board size. Flatten the slabs in a wide sander or with a belt sander or other method. Hard Maple will chip if you try to machine plane it but you could hand plane if you are good.

Glue the slabs together into one final board. Flatten, dimension, shape the edges as desired and sand out to 150.

Soak with mineral oil once a day for a week, onece a week for a month and once a month for a year. This will yellow the wood significantly but more importantly, the oil fills all the voids where the enemy "Water" would like to go. It aslo keeps out other food oils that can go rancid.

After using, rinse with hot water, dry with a towel and stand on edge until dry. If occasionally you want to disinfect it, a 10% solution of vinegar in warm water will do the trick, dry as stated before.

Never soak it in water. If you use Boiled Linseed Oil as suggested or any other oil BE SURE it is pure and does not have any "Dries" in it. These are heavy metal and very toxic. You can get mineral oil at culinary shops or at the pharmacy. Some people suggest other fod oils and generally they can go rancid so they are not suggested although it seems that maybe walnut oil works, even though walnust themselves go rancid quite easily but it is in pretty wide use in Europe. I prefer mineral oil.

Finally, if it ever splits along a glue line (it can happen), just let it dry for a week or two, rip it down that glueline and re-glue it.

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

After having a doizen or so comercial cutting boards split and thrown

Sounds like too many trips thru the dishwasher to me.

"Robatoy" wrote:

Is this a cutting board for 'work' or 'looks'? If it is for work, a slab of polyethelene is the best choice. Won't hurt your knives and is food safe. Wooden boards need to be looked after with more care and make sure you use food-safe adhesives and finishes. That also means NEVER to use peanut oil to finish your board.

Not sure if it is polyethylene or polypropylene that is FDA approved, but without a doubt, plastic is for dough and wood is for show, to paraphrase the golf metaphor.

A 3M scrub pad, some soap and hot water is all that is needed to keep things sterile.

I probably wash and scrub mine 5-6 times while doing the prep for a meal.

Am paranoid about immediate cleaning board after cutting meats, especially chicken.

You want to be anal about it, scrub board then pour some household bleach over all surfaces and let air dry.

The "poly" slab I'm using now is at least 25 years old and can probably last at least another 25.

If I want a board for show, wood it will be.

If I want a board for dough, poly is for me.

YMMV

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

D.

Reply to
Derek Lyons

As the guy who would be building the board, and my family and friends the one eating off of it, I'd be less than thrilled to read these words in the DAP Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue MSDS:

EFFECTS OF OVEREXPOSURE - INGESTION: May cause stomach and intestinal irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, weakness, and headache. Ingestion of over 1 gram/day of barium chloride (25 grams/day of product) may raise blood pressure and affect heart action.

The amount is someone would ingest from a cutting board would be minimal, but still, let's look for a safer alternative.

Gorilla Glue: Ingestion Product is not intended to be ingested or eaten.If this product is ingested,severe irritation of the gastrointestinal tract may occur,and should be treated symptomatically. Do not induce the patient or animal to vomit.Call a doctor,ambulance or seek veterinarian assistance immediately.

The word severe scares me. Keep looking.

Titebond II: INGESTION: No hazard expected in normal industrial use. Ingestion is not a likely route of exposure.

Hmmm. I guess Titebond is weaseling around on this one. I cook meals for small groups and the use of the product in a cutting board does make the exposure route much more likely. Keep looking.

Maybe the new and improved Titebond III? Nope. The most weaselly MSDS of them all. It states that ingestion is a route of entry, and that you should contact a poison control center immediately, but it has no information about the effects. It's also interesting to see that they put NO to skin contact as a route of entry, but it says it can cause skin irritation. From their promo literature we have this gem: "FDA approved for indirect food contact" What does that mean

Franklin's Hide Glue: INGESTION: Single dose oral toxicity is considered to be extremely low. No hazards expected from swallowing small amounts incidental to normal handling operations. Ingestion may cause gastrointestinal irritation.

If this is starting to make you nervous, take heart, the cutting board you are using now probably came from China where they're using the new lead-based glue-extender.

And there's hope:

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ran across a number of places where a particular glue was listed as either non-toxic...or maybe not. This site
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the plastic resin glue (urea formaldehyde) a non-toxic in its cured state rating. I think I'll take that and call it good and worry about some other stuff that will kill me.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

From the Titebond site regarding Titebond II

"is FDA approved for indirect food contact (cutting boards)"

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?prodline=3D2?prodcat=3D1Like many substances, once they cure, they are pretty safe.

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

I know my knife skills are limited, but I can't quite figure out how they expect you to get the food to hover above the cutting board while you cut it. ;)

Right. And it's not like you're eating a handful of sawdust with each meal.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

General consensus is to use a tight grain wood that will not promote collection of food particles and oil in the ports. This would mean that Oak and similar woods are out. Maple, cherry and similar woods are in. Use a good water resistant glue. Also, if you are gluing up slabs, jig up your drill press to allow a couple of dowels to be driven through matching holes near each end (and center with larger boards). I helped our son make a cutting board using dowel reinforcement 15 to 18 years ago and it is still going strong. There are lots of cutting board finishes available, but a couple of coats of mineral oil every 6 months or so renews the look and provides a good food-friendly finish. I have even given older boards a light pass through the surface planer to clean up cuts and gougers.

The board the son and I made was laminated from several hardwoods including Walnut, Cherry, and evil woods like Oak and Ash. Mom's been using it for years and we are still alive; but thorough cleaning and sealing are good.

RonB

Reply to
rnrbrogan

One would assume that the manufacturer would not recomment the product for unapproved uses...

Reply to
Doug Miller

That's referring to the *unmixed* *uncured* glue. Once mixed and cured, the stuff is insoluble in water.

[snip]

Like I said...

Reply to
Doug Miller

Use "quater sawn" maple. Drill through the full width of the board and insert staimless steel "tension members, nutted tightly with the ends of the holes filled with dowels. You could also use some T88 epoxy or equivalent on the joints between the bords if you want "belt and suspenders" Finish with vegetable oil

Reply to
clare

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