I would like to make an end-grain cutting board with a light checkerboard feild and a dark pattern (actually words) in the middle.
I will use purple heart for the pattern. And hard maple for the light field but I would like to have *another* good choice of light wood to alternate with the hard maple in the field.
The goal is to have the checkerboard show up nicely while also being distinctly lighter than the purple heart pattern
Things to consider:
Hickory sap wood
Birch
Standard woods for top quality cutting boards and butcher blocks, (DAGS "John Boos") are hard maple, cherry, and walnut.
Stick with one of those and you can't go wrong.
Keep in mind that when you sand the surface you will get bleeding from the dark to light colors...
Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
You must also keep in mind that if actually used as a cutting board, you should be able to eat off of it without getting sick. I've never seen purpleheart used and don't know about it's properties but I would definitely check into it before using it.
From a wikipedia article... "Exposure to the dust generated by cutting and sanding purpleheart can cause iritation and nausea, possibly due to the presence of dalbergione (neoflavonoid) compounds in the wood. This also makes purpleheart wood unsuitable to most people for use in jewelry."
Not sure I would want to eat off of that...
Be sure you have a helleva belt sander, it will definitely get a workout before you're through, sanding end grain is a bitch.
Larry
First lets caution that many woods are poisonous or is such that you are attacked while working on it. Smoke, dust, touch, oils.
Wood for cutting boards seems to be a natural. However, cutting into them leaves a slice - a place for food poison. My wife's grandfather was a butcher (after larger farms bought him out) and had to clean his large blocks after scraping them every day then cleaning each with ammonia.
Housewife's don't do that. The worse are the built in ones - rancid oils...
I have a program that indicates issues - and another file (somewhere) I used while turning some years ago - have to get back into it - been busy lately.
Mart> I would like to make an end-grain cutting board with a light
I just posted photos on APBW of what I made from walnut, cherry, maple. I made a half dozen of them for gifts a couple of years ago.
Actually, Purple Heart was suggested and used in a Cutting Board on the Wood Wisperer's web site - Now perhaps he didn't do the research... but he seemes to be otherwise relatively competent...
I might consider alternatively using Walnut for my pattern pieces...
I think you've got it backwards - the plastic ones are the problem. See:
I think you all got it wrong. Live in a pure environment and you soon need to live in a bubble. Everyone I know has survived eating food cut on both wood and plastic cutting boards. Quit wringing your hands and eat your pound of dirt...
Jack wrote in news:jbo17q$n48$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
Yep. Clean is good enough. Sterile is so, well, sterile ...
Sure. The 7 Second Rule. If it's on the ground for fewer than seven seconds, pick it up, blow it off, and eat it. Not a problem.
I _do_ bleach my cutting board every time I use it for meat, though.
-- Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. -- Thomas Jefferson
Larry Jaques wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I use usually a plastic cutting board or a ceramic dish for meat. It gets immediately brushed clean with soap and hot water. Bleach just gives PCBs .
You can just wash it with warm water and soap, lots of rinsing and if worried after that wipe it with diluted vinegar. Easier on the wood and accepted/suggested practice by food scientest who have published on this subject.
What part of "plastic cutting boards" did you miss? ;)
P.S: How's Godwin?
-- Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. -- Thomas Jefferson
Swingy's right.
-- Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. -- Thomas Jefferson
I just finished the maple and purpleheart cutting board from the WW site. = It looks great, but what a job. One thing I can tell you when you make thi= s (or any other end grain board) is get those cuts as accurate as possible.= I didn't, because I thought I could run the final thing through the plane= r. Luckily I found out how disastrous that would have been before I did i= t. I tried the belt sander but soon realized what an amazingly long practi= ce that was going to be. So I ended up making a 2.5" frame around it from = MDF and bought 2 pieces of angle iron for tracks to sit on top and used my = router and a 3/4" straight bit to get the bloody thing level. This worked = great, but a lot of it could have been avoided if I had just made very accu= rate cuts.
Jim
Here's a little cutting board Leon and I installed in a kitchen earlier this year:
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