Cutting boards as a career option

[AHill]

A table saw doesn't need to carry much weight to make that.  You rip some 5/4 then crosscut it into six inch lengths. It can be planed or joined if several sections IF anyone wanted such a thing.
Why would a commercial kitchen want one except for show.
They are hard to move
They require special care
They are unsanitary
Chef's only use a few 100ths of the surface and using it makes it unsanitary.

Thank you, a plastic set of three
costs $20 and you can throw them in the dishwasher.  No employee time is used to the special care for preservation or maintenance.  A restaurant owner will spend more than $20 a day just in labor costs.
Guess I'm just not in the Williams Sonoma crowd.

My point was a table saw was perfectly adequate for holding the weight of the larger, wider cutting boards, but that your planer or belt sander may not have that capacity.  If you want to make the larger width boards, you'll need 220v 3HP or 5HP planer or belt sander to accommodate the width of the board. 

As far as safety goes: 
https://www.akitchen.com/blog/2013/11/22...surprised/

ALL cutting boards must be washed / sanitized daily.  Doesn't matter if it's plastic, rubber, or wood.  The only additional expense for a wood butcher block or cutting board is periodic oiling of the wood, which is such a small expense compared to all other kitchen expenses.  The oil does mitigate absorption of liquids from cutting.  Most health codes require cutting boards used for meats or fish be segregated from those used to prep vegetables.  And, for the record, e. coli bacteria can come from vegetables as well as meats.

If you're concerned about contamination or unsanitary conditions due to wood cutting boards or butcher blocks, I recommend you avoid any restaurant who uses them.  Or eat in NYC, which has banned all wood cutting boards.  I know of restaurants and butcher shops that have been using traditional butcher blocks for decades.

It should also be noted that many sushi chefs continue to use wood.  Introduction and use of synthetic rubber cutting boards is somewhat recent.

[Kizar_Sozay]

My point was a table saw was perfectly adequate for holding the weight of the larger, wider cutting boards, but that your planer or belt sander may not have that capacity.  If you want to make the larger width boards, you'll need 220v 3HP or 5HP planer or belt sander to accommodate the width of the board. 

As far as safety goes: 
https://www.akitchen.com/blog/2013/11/22...surprised/

ALL cutting boards must be washed / sanitized daily.  Doesn't matter if it's plastic, rubber, or wood.  The only additional expense for a wood butcher block or cutting board is periodic oiling of the wood, which is such a small expense compared to all other kitchen expenses.  The oil does mitigate absorption of liquids from cutting.  Most health codes require cutting boards used for meats or fish be segregated from those used to prep vegetables.  And, for the record, e. coli bacteria can come from vegetables as well as meats.

If you're concerned about contamination or unsanitary conditions due to wood cutting boards or butcher blocks, I recommend you avoid any restaurant who uses them.  Or eat in NYC, which has banned all wood cutting boards.  I know of restaurants and butcher shops that have been using traditional butcher blocks for decades.

It should also be noted that many sushi chefs continue to use wood.  Introduction and use of synthetic rubber cutting boards is somewhat recent.

Don't speak of unsanitary food prep to me.  I have a daughter who is an environmental health inspector, the person who hands out the grades or closes the doors.  I always make sure to GI the house before she visits.  If she'd visit more often, the kitchen would be cleaner.  I always put the plastic cutting boards in the dishwasher so they are rotated every other day or so.  OTW, I'm the kind of guy who puts cling wrap on a plate to avoid washing it.

[Admiral]

When I was an apprentice union butcher in NJ, back in '68 - '72, it was my job to "sanitize" all the blocks (all were Boos) in the cutting room; used ammonia in seriously hot water with a scrub brush.  Also cleaned all the band saws, knives, steels and grinders the same way. Interestingly, nobody sharpened their own knives, only me, as I would do the precision knife work like veal scaloppine and beef round "minute steak" which were in vogue; I didn't want to do production work on the bandsaw (pork and veal chops, beef steaks, etc.), as I saw several guys really injure themselves with the saws (I knew it was not my career as I was going to college). Because I was a big, strapping kid at the time( 6' 2" and 225 with no fat), I did a lot of "breaking down" of hind and fore quarters of beef, mostly knife work and hacksaw, and the boss was happy with that.  Back then, we did have some plastic work tables, which got the same cleaning treatment.  The concern was not with beef, veal or lamb, but with poultry, and the poultry processing areas got special attention; this was before it all came prepackaged.  I vividly remember cutting up crates and crates of whole chickens for 8 straight hours, or more during chicken sales, in a separate area of the cutting room.  All poultry was kept in a separate cooler, where I did most of my work.  I could cut up a chicken in about 20 seconds!  Amazingly, the necks and backs sold quickly - folks (who grew up during the depression) couldn't get enough of them and used them to make soup!  How times have changed......

[Handplanesandmore]

I'd die if I were forced to do making cutting boards for a living!


Simon

[lincmercguy]

"But I have a young guy I sell wood to who knows so little about joinery it's embarrassing, but he sells simple edge grain cutting boards for $150+ all the time to people who follow him on Twitter and Instagram. It's all about Marketing and he's good at it with his target audience. I looked at his Twitter feed once and the banter drove me nuts in a couple of minutes. Not for me. I'll stick with word of mouth and the old-fashioned internet."

I sell one once in a while, but they seem to be slow to move. I'm not a marketer, and I know that is the key. I've had some luck on Ebay, more than Etsy. Maybe I should get a presence going on the 'gram. I know I should really make some fast-motion of builds for construction to drive traffic to something like that, but I'm not motivated enough to do that at this point after my day job.