Cutting Board Wood Question

[Immortan D]

What about those bamboo cutting boards? Are them antiseptic?  I wonder.

[Ronn W]

I wise man once said that when the results of a study are contrary to common sense, the study is wrong. (Not referring, necessarily, to anything in this thread)

[wdwerker]

Common sense says wooden cutting boards and end grain chopping blocks have pre dated plastic for a few centuries at least. My grandfather(moms side) was a butcher. He said they washed the chopping block with steaming hot water then scraped the surface and doused it again at the end of every shift . Knives were sharpened or steeled to straighten the edge as needed all day. They used high carbon steel which was easier to sharpen and could actually take a sharper edge than the stainless blades today but it didn't hold an edge as long.

[Eric.]

The problem as I see it isn't so much using a wooden cutting board to cut meat, per se...it's when you cut meat, then you cut vegetables or fruit or anything else that you are going to eat raw.  So if you had a wooden cutting board dedicated only to meat, and another for fruits and veggies, you'd probably be okay since you usually cook the meat...at least I do, at home (I'm not big on homemade ceviche, carpaccio or sushi...I leave those to the restaurants).  It's cross-contamination that worries me.

I use my wooden cutting boards for non-meat food only, and I use a plastic one for meat.  I put it in the dishwasher where the toxic detergent and high heat surely kill any bacteria.  You can't treat a wooden board like that and expect to last five minutes.

[wdwerker]

Reasonable concern !  I put a clean towel on the counter, cut all my veggies on one side first then flip the board and cut the meat on the other side. From there  it goes into the sink for a scrub with hot water then into my drying rack on edge to dry.  I keep a watering can in the kitchen, 2 1/2 gallons gets me water for the plants and piping hot water. 

[Immortan D]

11 hours ago, Eric. said:

I use my wooden cutting boards for non-meat food only, and I use a plastic one for meat. 

Exactly what we do.

 

11 hours ago, Eric. said:

You can't treat a wooden board like that and expect to last five minutes.

That was mas point also. Even though a wooden board CAN be successfully disinfected after cutting raw meat, the process will ruin the board, or at least the finish, make it look like crap.

[Eric.]

If I had a bigger house I'd probably have a dedicated wooden cutting board for meats and one for everything else, just because I so prefer to cut on an end grain wooden cutting board.  As long as I'm cooking whatever it is I just cut up on the meat board, I'm not that concerned.

But I just don't have the space to store a second board.  The first one is inconvenient enough.

[drzaius]

We've had a wooden cutting board that my brother made for almost 40 years. It regularly gets washed in hot, soapy water & then dried off right away. Never been in the dishwasher. No glue failures, cracking or warping.

[Immortan D]

16 minutes ago, Mike. said:

the USDA also recommends the regular application of a solution of 1 teaspoon bleach per quart of water.

Bleach = Disinfection. We use a detergent that already contains bleach for our cutting boards.

[Tpt life]

Even the test kitchen has not addressed the big long term studies. The big long terms found bio material persisting in curled strands of plastic in the cut scarring. Even under autoclave operations, the bio material was sterilized but remained for "re-infection" at even faster levels as the material broke down. They found that common cleaning practice was not effective at removing that material. That said, we are closer to lab cleaners as adults. My kids would kill us all. (Maybe they are trying to?) I am 38 and have lived in a house with a dishwasher for three years of my life. Just some context that I think is missing. Nothing more. Obviously plastic has not killed any of us, but neither has wood. 

[Tpt life]

2 hours ago, Mike. said:

Plastic probably has killed lots of people, C.  

Fair point. I limited the discussion poorly. I was referring just to cutting on a soiled plastic board. 

[bushwacked]

damn lots of good info in here that I completely did not expect haha ... thanks  

dont let me get in the way of this great convo

[weithman5]

Not to say it doesn't happen, but In 20 years in medicine, I have never seen a patient who can trace their diarrhea or anything else for that matter, to their cutting boards.

[mrrhode04]

My thoughts on wooden cutting boards has already been covered, so I will talk about the original question. I make a lot of cutting boards for people and primary stick with Walnut, Hard maple, Cherry and Purple heart. People really like the Purple heart because it is naturally purple. Instead of change the wood that I use I change the design to keep things different. Don't be afraid of sap wood it can make a really cool design without trying. Here are a few boards that I have recently made.

 

[drzaius]

Nice cutting boards. A couple look sorta like digital camo. My favorites are the 3rd & 4th ones. Great use of sap on the 3rd & the 4th is almost too pretty to cut on.

[Redfish]

Not sure if I should've started a new topic or not.  But where do y'all get most of your wood for cutting boards?  From what I can tell, if you buy it from the online retailers like woodsource.com and such, you might end up spending a fortune for one cutting board.  And one more question, what width and thickness do you look for?   

[wtnhighlander]

The end grain cutting boards are often made of scraps left over from bigger projects. But, like any other 'fine furniture' project, buying materials is rarely cheap.

[BonPacific]

1 hour ago, Redfish said:

Not sure if I should've started a new topic or not.  But where do y'all get most of your wood for cutting boards?  From what I can tell, if you buy it from the online retailers like woodsource.com and such, you might end up spending a fortune for one cutting board.  And one more question, what width and thickness do you look for?   

A lot of folk use their scraps and leftovers, it's a good use for them. If you're making a lot of boards in a consistent pattern, you'll need material like anything else. Usually the board footage isn't going to be massive, and cutting boards are relatively efficient in their use of material (unless you get real crazy with the shape/design). 

Wooden boards are almost always going to be more expensive than plastic though, that's just the material. Look here.

Width and thickness are entirely up to you. Cutting boards come in every size and shape you can imagine. 1.5 inches is pretty standard thickness if you go storebought, with butcher/chopping blocks being thicker. I'd try and keep it north of an inch, otherwise you have a higher chance of warping.

[Brendon_t]

I have used a lot of different woods for cutting boards.  Purple Heart,  padeuK, walnut, maple, birch, white oak, cherry, mahogany.. I sell a lot of them during the holidays and a few more year round.  I will buy wood for them specifically to fill orders.  I build three at a time for sake or repetition.   Here is my table at my office  holiday xmas boutique a few weeks ago.  Sold every board on there plus orders for 6 more. 

[treeslayer]

nice work Brendon, Drunken Woodworker wine bottle and glass holders look good too.

[Coop]

@mrrhode04, Where do you get your patterns? @Brendon_t has an app for them.

[Brendon_t]

29 minutes ago, K Cooper said:

@mrrhode04, Where do you get your patterns? @Brendon_t has an app for them.

Not quite an app. I use the CBDesigner program that was written and share on LJ. You can Google and download it.  I build all my boards in there first so I have a cut list and know what it will look like prior. I've got 60 something saved. 

[mrrhode04]

32 minutes ago, K Cooper said:

@mrrhode04, Where do you get your patterns? @Brendon_t has an app for them.

I use the many different things. One is the same that Brendon uses, I also use Solidworks mainly because I am using it all day long so it doesn't take much to draw something up in my free time. A lot of my designs come from my head, I have a idea of a finished product in my head and then just start cutting wood to make it look the way I want.