Cutting board wood choices?

[Duane N]

I have a couple of hard maple cutting boards under my belt (my parents love their "his" and "hers" cutting boards I recently made for them) but I still have some shorts of hard and soft maple left over (enough for a couple more cutting boards).

I possibly want to add some accent woods to these but I've read mixed answers about using African Mahogany in a cutting board.  These won't be end grain cutting boards just to clarify.  Also, what about Hickory being used in a cutting board?

I'm trying to use what woods I have on hand rather than purchasing traditional woods used in cutting boards.

Thanks in advance

[Bill Wilson]

I've used hickory before for cutting boards. As an accent wood, I think it is fine. It's hard & dense, but more open grained than hard maple, so it may not be ideal as a primary wood or for end grain cutting boards.

[Bill Holt]

Another OK on hickory.

[Duane N]

I've used hickory before for cutting boards.  As an accent wood, I think it is fine.  It's hard & dense, but more open grained than hard maple, so it may not be ideal as a primary wood or for end grain cutting boards.

Another OK on hickory.

Thank you both on the answer about Hickory.  I've read it's OK to use but not too much of it.  I think the main concerns with cutting boards are the meat juices that will get soaked into the pours of the wood depending on the type of wood used.  My Dad likes to grill so he mainly cuts meat on the board I made him so it's 100% hard maple.  My Mom's is hard maple as well with some accent strips of Walnut in hers but she mainly uses it for vegetables.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

There’s a reason commercial suppliers use HM. If you’re going to invest the time do it right!

[Pondracer]

I have a couple of hard maple cutting boards under my belt (my parents love their "his" and "hers" cutting boards I recently made for them) but I still have some shorts of hard and soft maple left over (enough for a couple more cutting boards).

I possibly want to add some accent woods to these but I've read mixed answers about using African Mahogany in a cutting board.  These won't be end grain cutting boards just to clarify.  Also, what about Hickory being used in a cutting board?

I'm trying to use what woods I have on hand rather than purchasing traditional woods used in cutting boards.

Thanks in advance

I use hard maple, cherry and walnut mostly.  I would stick with anything tight grain, non-exotic.

[FS7]

It seems as though the recent trend towards home cooking has made cutting boards popular again. I am not the most talented woodworker, but I can make cutting boards, and people love them. So I've been doing them quite a bit.

Regarding proteins and bacterial contamination, a study from the University of Wisconsin showed that wood cutting boards, even in cross section, harbored less bacteria than plastic. This study was from 1993 and has been replicated, so it's safe to say that wooden cutting boards are perfectly safe (and in fact safer than plastic). I am not sure if scientists yet know exactly why this is the case, but wood seems to actively kill bacteria. When I make cutting boards, I do a hand-written card that tells them what woods I use, how to care for it, and also that wooden cutting boards are perfectly safe for proteins. General cleaning can be done with hot water and a paper towel.

As for the wood choice, I do agree that tight-grained hardwoods are best. I think the antimicrobial properties of wood apply to pretty much all species, but tight-grained hardwoods provide a consistency of feel - both wet and dry - across the board. (Softer woods feel fuzzy when wet.) I have used African Mahogany as an accent wood in cutting boards with no problems. I have used Padauk as well without a problem. I use walnut, maple, and cherry quite a bit. Birch is used also, primarily because I have some and I don't like it for almost any other purpose.

Hickory works fine as well. The one thing I will tell you about hickory is that it HATES tooling of any kind. It's brutal. If you make the mistake of putting it on an edge, make sure you climb cut to do any routing. Also, shallow passes. Hickory will destroy almost any tooling. It's very, very, very hard to work with, and it tears out if you look at it wrong. It's hard as a rock, though, and stands up to knives wonderfully.

Generally speaking, any hardwood (think Janka 1K+) should be fine. This includes even obviously open-grained wood, like red oak. I wouldn't use that as a first choice, but I know people who have family heirloom red oak cutting boards that have been through decades of wars and are still going strong.

[EdL]

I would not use the soft maple, I put walnut or cherry as accent boards near the edges....hard maple for the rest.

IME, ash and honey locust are not good, to porus, they fuzz up quickly.

Ed

[Duane N]

Thank you all again for the responses.  If I do decide to add some accent wood(s) to the next round of cutting boards it will towards the edges of the boards just to break up the hard Maple.

Thanks again.

[Hank Knight]

I've made some nice cutting boards from flat grained white oak. White oak is much less porous than red oak and it works well for cutting boards. I wouldn't use it for end grain cutting boards but it works for flat grained ones. It's tough, stands up well to knife cuts and it also tolerates moisture well. Accents of maple, walnut and bloodwood look nice with white oak.