Need assistance for wood selection

[BenBrown]

Hello all
Well I have to make wooden chopping board for my project and would love some input from great minds when it comes to wood.

I am kind of on the right track. I have decided to have a hardwood as I have heard that for small cuts they can reheal abit. and also they take alot more effort to cut through so it will give more life on my board. Well i was just wondering which timbers i should use? and maybe why that one?

Thankyou Ben

[RufflyRustic]

In all honesty, you could use close to any hardwood. The ones to stay away from, in my personal opinion, are those with spalting, are highly scented/oily, or are well known to be toxic.

for example, sassafras can have lots of spalting in it (spalting - mould, not healthy)
highly scented? not so hard but not the best woods for food eg camphor (yes, others may disagree)
toxic dust -> mackay cedar

Good chopping board hardwoods:
jarrah
ironbark
most of the gums, eg sydney blue gum, blackbutt etc


cheers
Wendy

[woodhunt]

I can't understand after seeing so many toxic warnings from councils regarding poisoning with camphor laurel.

I keep seeing these in almost every fruit shop- am I missing something here?

Are certain types allowable?

Not sure if I'd want to cut my dinner up on anything that's related to the amazonian blowdart poison tree (noted in the following link and I read it somewhere else but can't find it atm)...


57 reasons why camphor laurels must go (http://www.camphorlaurel.com/57reasons.html)


Kauri must be a contender for making a lighter block if you are making it thick and large- my butchers block is made of that and I'd be very lucky if two of me could lift it!

Cheers,
Garth