I have my doubts about a laminated core cutting tool board, partly because of looks. I find the traditional build method more pleasing. Like these. Notice one is face grain orientation and the other two are edge grain orientation. Nothing wrong with end grain orientation. You just have to make sure it is well oiled and waxed.

 

Very nice. But both seem to be face grain, no?

 

Disclaimer: I have made exactly one cutting board, and it was just a small charcuterie board of a simple piece of 3/8 wood, sealed with mineral oil. Amazingly it’s never warped.

TMK a multi layered cutting board is not that common but it’s certainly doable, and would be extremely stable. I’ve seen pizza peels made like this. I’ve made custom “plywood“ using three alternating layers of 1/4” thick strips and it worked great. I think narrow strips of well seasoned wood and sealed well should be pretty stable.

The recipe for cupping is leaving the board on the counter all the time, or not putting feet on it, which causes unequal exposure to the air.

End grain boards supposedly keep the knife sharper longer (do they?). I also have questions about knife incisions into the wood and potential bacterial invasion, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue. The downside is they will be thicker and heavier, more difficult to store. I think their popularity is owing to the myriad geometrical designs. From a strictly utility POV I wouldn’t use one.

I’d say give it a go, you can make a little thinner board if desired, and you’ll never need to worry about warping.

 

Somehow, the end green is actually supposed to absorb less, or hold bacteria less. Maybe just it’s openness doesn’t allow the bacteria to thrive, I don’t know. I’m probably passed the laminated core idea. It’s a lot of additional work.

I’m just not sure if I’m going with edge grain or end grain. It’s probably a tossup and I would never notice a difference either way. It’s not like we’re professional chefs.

Curious though, the attached image looks to be end grain. How would you say that inlay is set? Would that be a full piece top the bottom? Let’s say those two words are cherry and walnut. I think so but then you’re gluing the end of the cherry to what appears to be the face or edge of the walnut. Or do I have it wrong?

also, how would you set that groove? Personally, I would be hesitant to use a router because one slip up, which I am certainly capable of, and the work is ruined. I’m always hesitant with power tools near the end of a project for that reason. A router plane? A semicircle scraper?

 

I’m unable to attach an image for some reason

 

Are you getting it from a file on your computer are you trying to do it from your phone how are you trying to attach a picture?

This is a example picture that I grab from another web page to make sure it loads.

 

 

Photo library on my phone. I’ve done it many times in the past and it worked just now so I’m guessing some sort of a glitch temporary.

 

I've had issues lately attaching pictures from my albums on this site and reported it. I have to open a picture in my album here, save it to Photos on the iPad, and then attach it to my post. Here's a picture from the photo library on this iPad.

And one from my album here.

Delta 16" Scroll Saw

• Jim Frye
• Jun 7, 2023

Model 45-540 VS

Which works now. Ah, the wonders of technology!

 

I'd read somewhere that maple is antimicrobial. A quick search shows that is plausibly true. There's also this article: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7277147/ that I have neither the time nor the wherewithal to read. Plus it doesn't seem to provide an answer.

 

Lots of good information already. Let me add a few more thoughts.

1) End grain is easy on knives. But if you have face grain and run the knife with the grain (like rip-sawing), it's just as easy on the knife. If you occasionally sharpen your knife, don't worry about it. If you're a sushi chef and use a delicate blade that's hard to sharpen, you may really prefer end grain.

2) With geometric-pattern cutting boards, end grain is the best solution. If you tried to glue up a face-grain cutting board with small pieces, some pieces would be glued end-grain to end-grain, and that is a weak glue joint. That's especially bad for a board that will occasionally get wet, putting extra strain on the joint.

3) Controlled tests have shown that bacteria dies faster on wood than on plastic. I speculate that wood draws moisture away from the bacteria but plastic allows the bacteria to stay moist.

4) My everyday cutting board is face-grain maple. Periodically (~yearly or so), I notice that the end-grain looks dark, as if it has mold growing in it, so I take it to the table saw, shave off 1/8" of darkened end grain, sand it, and put it back in use. This only happens on the bottom edge, the edge where it rests when stacked vertically in the drying rack.

5) For ornamental or serving boards that won't get wet and won't be used for cutting, anything goes.

 

So for an end grain board it seems standard procedure is to rip pieces and then flip them to glue up an edge grain board. Then crosscut, flip for end grain.

But, in step 1, why flip to make an edge grain board? Why not just rearrange the pieces (to ensure varied end grain in the next step) and glue them as a face grain board, then crosscut?

Additionally, why not flip some so there is a mix of face and edge grain (for even more varied end grain). Or is that an expansion issue?

I am starting with 2” thick cherry.

 

Yes, there are many ways to do it. The method is driven by your intended final board.

In general, glue does not stick to end grain well. There are techniques to improve end grain gluing, but it won't be anywhere near as strong as a well-done face-to-face joint. If you plan to make a cutting board that will be used and will get wet, avoid end-grain gluing.

You can avoid end grain gluing by always having the end grain up. You can also avoid end grain gluing with a face grain board by making the board as strips. Jim Frye posted photos of two boards above, one with strips of wood and one with blocks inside the strips. If those blocks are not end-grain, the glue joint to them will be weaker. For a decorative board, that may be fine.

If you want to make a particular pattern combining end grain and face grain, go for it. Just don't expect it to take abuse.

Side story: I had a leftover scrap of 2x4 walnut with some sap wood and decided to make a cutting board 8x12. I cut the scrap into 12 pieces and glued them together. The sapwood made an attractive feature of this board. Photo below.

One evening was particularly warm and dry. I heard a loud bang like a gunshot. I looked at the cutting board and saw that it developed a thin crack. As the wood shrunk from dryness, stress built up and finally let go. Amazingly, the crack was not along a glue line, but instead across one of the 2x4 pieces. Those glue joints (original Titebond) are strong and never let go! A few days later, the weather cooled, the board took on some humidity and the crack closed up. I still have that board and use it. For the life of me, today I can't see the crack.

 

I think my last post was probably not clear. I’m not looking to mix grain direction necessarily, certainly not end grain with anything, I’d be open to mixing face and edge. But even that’s a separate issue.

My real question is that my understanding of an end grain cutting board is a two-step process

1) rip the board and then flip each ripped piece 90°, and then glue them back together, which creates an edge grain cutting board

2) crosscut this board flip each cross cut piece 90°, and include them back together, which gives you end grain on top

Perfect.

But step one, why flip each piece 90°? Why not just shuffle the pieces surround and flip some of them 180°. This would still give you varying end grain direction after the cross cut in step two. The only difference is you’d be gluing edge to edge instead of face-to-face. So the question is, is there a reason why step one is creating edge grain cutting board? Is gluing face to face better than edge to edge?

Additionally, to vary the grain even more I would ask, in step 1, why not flip some of the pieces 90° but not all. This gives even more grain variation in step 2, But then I know it is edge to face.

 

Yes, you can do it either way. Edge grain and face grain are really the same.

Perhaps this will answer your question:

The reason why people rip, flip 90, glue, then crosscut is so that they have less work gluing. The hardest part of the job is gluing so that everything is on the same level. Any error requires planing and sanding to smooth it. Gluing 50 small pieces at one time is very labor-intensive and certainly will produce lots of misalignment.

If you can glue up reasonable size pieces (the limit of your saw), then you can crosscut them into a few larger pieces and only have to struggle to align those few larger pieces for the final glue-up.

 

You'll want a hard, dense wood for a cutting board if it's going to last very long being used for cutting, and cherry wouldn't be a very good choice. It's a lovely wood that machines well and takes a nice finish, but it's neither hard nor dense. If you're not familiar with the Janka hardness scale, I'd suggest looking at that. most species of walnut are harder, but still not great. The current fad is "charcuterie," which I gather is French for cold cuts, and you can make boards for that out of nearly anything, so long as you don't plan on doing much cutting on them. I've see real butcher blocks made of end grain, and those seem to hold up well, but the ones I've seen have been made of maple, beech, ans similarly tough stuff.

 

I agree 100%. Every search on Google says Walnut and Cherry are good for cutting boards, but they are not very hard hardwoods. Hard Maple is the sweet spot, Very hard but not too hard. For a darker wood I prefer Sepele which has a tight grain and is a little harder than Maple. I'm still searching for a middle color that doesn't cost a mint to buy.

I think purple heart, and wenge are too hard, they will kill you knife too quickly. There are some other wood species from South America that are so hard they might as well be called metal!