End Grain Cutting Board

These are great. Xmas is coming, I better get back in the shop!

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

nice looking board , bet glue up was a challenge. what kind of glue did you use ?

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever

Dan,
Thanks! Glue up was messy and took several days but wasn’t too difficult. I used West System slow setting epoxy. The critical part is getting each sequential row planed completely flat on both sides before you start gluing so you can glue the next row to the block without any gap issues. Then it’s just glue, clamp, and repeat until the block is as big as you want the finished boards to be.

-- - Scott "handplane"

Very nice cutting boards!

-- Tom, Surfside Beach, SC - Romans 8:28

Awesome. Great project.

-- All donations should be made out to me and in the form of wood or tools ~Chris

Love the colors…...nicely done too!

-- " If I can make it,so can you" Andy in Oregon

This has a beautiful handmade quality to it that isn’t apparent to me in the other cutting boards such as TWW. Well done!

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sometimes art should remain art. Please do not use this as a REAL cutting board. Walnut is a toxic wood and shouldnt come in contact with food. Likewise walnut shavings should never be placed in a compost heap for the same reason. Your board is fabulous. Hang on the wall and let it be admired, in safety.

-- Dan

Additionally, even though end grain is the “traditional” and “proper” surface for cutting blocks, it is highly absorbent. If you do want to use any wooden cutting board, one should be reserved for cutting raw meat (or use plastic) and use a different one for vegetables and cooked meat, so as to avoid health problems.

Well I certainly appreciate all the nice comments! My intention for this board was that it not be simply admired, but that it actually be used. The design of the board is achieved by simply gluing blocks of 8/4 woods of different colors together to try to achieve a random look. There wasn’t any significant artistic design effort put into it. I promise not to have my feelings hurt if it gets scratched or damaged. Having said that, I only use mine to cut bread – meats and wet vegetables should be cut on plastic boards. My relatives who received them as gifts likely will never cut on them at all – much to my dismay! I did intentionally try to use dense woods with closed pores on the endgrain to avoid absorbing liquids and causings issues though. This was evidently kind of successful because the cutting board oil I put on some of them didn’t want to soak in very much.

As for the toxicity of walnut – unless you are a horse or a plant growing in the vicinity of the roots of a walnut tree you are pretty safe. While it is true that some humans are allergic to the pollen of walnut trees, for the most part walnut isn’t an issue for people. Please refer to the following links for the full story:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1148.html
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/info_walnut_toxicity.htm
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Walnut_toxicity_fact_and_fiction.html

-- - Scott "handplane"

First of all the cutting board looks amazing. Also I’m glad you are actually using it. I wanna try one soon with some maple stock I got around.

-- -Mark Foster, MD www.juliakilduff.com for our art/wood

Utterly fantastic colors and workmanship !!! I’ve got to try an end grain board one of these days : ) Saved as a favorite for future inspiration : )
PS …I use Black Walnut in almost every board I make and no one has died ….yet !!! LOL

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .

Great job!

Thanks for the post

Callum

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Great work and a great solution for mountains of cut-offs.

-- Michael A. Brailsford

Board is nice, I have been making them for a while as well. I did some research as well on using walnut wood. My doctor and from what I read say its safe. With that said I put 10 coats of 50/50 salad bowl finish and mineral spirits so its safe to say its sealed.

nice job!

-- Ken, "Everyday above ground is a good day!"

Great boards and super choice of woods

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon