warping of end grain

[leonard]

I'm make a bunch of end grain cutting boards.When I cut the glued up panels and flip them over on the end grain they all lift in the center, is there any way to minimize this?

Len

[C & E]

I'm not trying to be an a**, Len, but isn't end grain pretty porous to be used as a cutting board?

[leonard]

its ok, the end grain does not dull the knifes and does not show cutting marks much. You have to oil it well thought

[Chris Friesen]

Butcher blocks have been end-grain for a looong time. Some google searching will give you tons of hits for end grain cutting boards.

Chris

[Toller]

Can you be clearer on the problem? I made two a year ago and they are as flat as when I made them.

[Wood Butcher]

This sounds like a moisture problem which could get worse when using for the intended purpose. Also an end grain board could be somewhat fragile and prone to breaking. A few options:

1. Do nothing. Call it a design feature.
2. Make them thicker.
3. Cut them thinner and laminate to a long grain substrate.
4. Breadboard or spline all 4 edges.

Art

[Bruce Barnett]

Did you alternate grain direction of the pieces?

[leonard]

I did alternate the grain, the wood was kiln dried and is 2 inches thick.before cutting the strips they were 4 square.Hard maple,cherry,honey locust..As soon as I cut them into strips each strip (about 2 1/8 inches thick) the center rises about a 32 to a 16th of an inch. this seems to be a pattern on all the woods.

Len

[George]

Sounds like it might be a cutting problem. As I understand it, _if_ I understand it, the rise is along the long grain ([[[[ rise]]]])? You should be able to run the pieces through the tablesaw again, using the two-point contact first, and nibble them back to parallel.

If it's along the face grain (----rise----), no problem. Glue will do, so long as the thickness is right.

[dadiOH]

I'm not clear from your description as to exactly when/where you are getting the deformation but dollars to doughnuts it is because the interior and exterior of the pieces have different moisture contents. Same thing if you resaw a board...the interior is wetter than the exterior and the thing will cup after resawing. The answer is...

After cutting, let the wood acclimatize again - it will pretty much unwarp itself in time. To be sure, cut it a bit oversize so it can be skinnied down after acclimatizing.

-- dadiOH ____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at