Cutting Board material

[trvlnmny]

What type of wood do people recommend I use for cutting boards. Thanks.

[Doug Winterburn]

Non porous such as hard maple and cherry.

[John Grossbohlin]

End grain maple.

John

[Ed Pawlowski]

What type of wood do people recommend I use for cutting boards. Thanks.

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I've use maple, cherry, walnut. They are closed grain and durable. Avoid open grained woods like oak.

[Steve Turner]

It's not unheard of for cutting boards to be made of white oak, but red oak would be a definite no-no.

[Josepi]

Why not red oak?

On 10/25/2010 9:52 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote: I've use maple, cherry, walnut. They are closed grain and durable. Avoid open grained woods like oak.

[-MIKE-]

It would corrode your knives, of course. :-p

[Robatoy]

Monitor, keyboard, desk, etc....

[Josepi]

Well definitely my wood of choice for furniture (and white ash which I have mixed, previously).

Perhaps a knife block from red oak that could self sharpen your knives with it's corrosive properties, well tamed? (apologies, clare)

Reminds me, I was finally getting around to some shelves in garage (temporary workshop while finishing house) and putting a multitude of equip. cases away, yesterday. I was just about to toss an old miter saw case and I thought I would open it, just in case. There was the 80 tooth 10" blade I bought at half price from $120-130, years ago with only a few small trim jobs on it. Scanned the teeth for chips...none....what a find. Thought it was done years ago due to framing and blade change laziness. Got mostly trim to do in the house this winter, yet.

On Oct 25, 11:39 pm, -MIKE- wrote: It would corrode your knives, of course. :-p

On 10/25/10 10:29 PM, Josepi wrote: Why not red oak?

[J. Clarke]

White Oak has closed cells, red oak open. In wine casks and boatbuilding it makes a big difference--red oak leaks, white oak doesn't. Dunno if it makes a real difference in cutting boards or not.

[Ed Pawlowski]

White Oak has closed cells, red oak open. In wine casks and boatbuilding it makes a big difference--red oak leaks, white oak doesn't. Dunno if it makes a real difference in cutting boards or not.

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The fact that it leaks won't make a difference in use, but it give plenty of space to absorb raw chicken juice and the like. If you take a small pice of oak you can blow through it. Lots of space for bacteria to hide.

[dadiOH]

End grain red oak sucks up liquids like a sponge.

(Name and sig down at the bottom where it should be)

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[pierre]

What others have emphasized. Do not use open-pore woods, such as red oak, ash, bass or mahogany. They tend to soak liquids. I would add to not use exotic woods that contain "sand" or minerals that will dull knives, such as teak. I have had good luck with cherry, maple, walnut (all of which have nice contrast with one another), and beech. I like the pattern/color (or lack of) of beech for boards.

You did not ask about finish, but I really like food-grade mineral oil, which is sold at the pharmacy for "constipation" problems.There are other finishes, but they tend to be more expensive, and, at least in my experience, not any better.

Finally, research done by the U of Wisconsin-Madison shows that wood boards are far superior to composite boards in eliminating bacteria.

Pierre

[Steve Turner]

Hold on there, you said "oak" instead of "red oak". You can't take a piece of white oak and "blow through it"; not like you can with red oak.

I'm reminded of our kitchen table, which is one of those "wife buys a table at the local unfinished furniture outlet because husband says he doesn't have time to make one" things, yet I got stuck with putting the finish on it. Of course, it had to be stained to match our existing cabinetry so I was using whatever stain the builder had used (Minwax "Gunstock", as I recall). The table's made of red oak, and whenever I stain any open pored wood I like to go over it with the air gun while it's still wet to get all the stain out of the pores (otherwise it will continue to weep out over days, until the stuff finally "dries"). I got a big kick out of blowing the air gun into the open pores at one end of the table and watching the stain come out of the pores at the other end, four or five feet away! Try THAT with white oak...

[Robatoy]

those fillers are pre-coloured and work extremely well. Then stain, sanding sealer, lacquer x many. I thoroughly dislike red oak..... with a passion. Stuff is just plain nasty. I can't remember how many commercial projects my shop has built over the years, always on architects' specs, because none of us would ever volunteer. Some people love it and that is why God gave us so many trees to chose from.

When it comes to cutting boards, purely from a performance standpoint, my choice would be hard maple endgrain, or beech.

[Josepi]

Maple was classically chosen for it's antibacterial properties, also. Cedar, similiar uses for moths and insects.

Red oak sounds like it may fit that bill also, having some toxic properties.

When it comes to cutting boards, purely from a performance standpoint, my choice would be hard maple endgrain, or beech.

[Josepi]

Taht, IMHO, is the confusion. The research showed some toxic compound that eliminates bacteria in maple. If red oak contained a similiar compound it may be ideal for that application. The open pore thing is another issue to be considered, of course.

I have tried all kinds of oil on my maple cutting board. It doesn't work well. Heat the baord in the oven for an hour (gently) and rub it with a good saturated fat (Crisco shortening) and you won't have to do it again for ten years, if ever. That also should fill some pores. Oils can go rancid and become toxic to humans when left out in air and warm.

You did not ask about finish, but I really like food-grade mineral oil, which is sold at the pharmacy for "constipation" problems.There are other finishes, but they tend to be more expensive, and, at least in my experience, not any better.

Finally, research done by the U of Wisconsin-Madison shows that wood boards are far superior to composite boards in eliminating bacteria.

Pierre

[-MIKE-]

You just make this stuff up, don't you?

[Jim Weisgram]

Walnut oil.

[RicodJour]

He's an odd duck. 'sI can't tell if he's a trollish noob, or a noobish troll, but the stuff he comes up with is priceless...or worthless - really both. It's interesting that in all the centuries of oiling cutting boards, he the one guy that can't get it to work.

Maybe he should start contacting all of those silly cutting board manufacturers and set them straight.

has only been doing it for 130 years. I'm sure they'd appreciate the pointers.

R