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22nd January 2022, 03:56 PM #1Senior Member
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(best and worst) Timbers for cutting boards?
I'm thinking of making a few cutting boards as presents to give out during the year, but I have no idea what timbers are good for cutting boards and which ones to avoid? Planning on making a board with seven strips of timber across it - so ideally looking for at least three species.
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22nd January 2022, 08:41 PM #2GOLD MEMBER
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I can't help you with multiple species, but our family have been using Blue gum or Red gum when we can get it. Currently using Red Gum every day, wash it in hot soapy water and no-one has been sick yet here in the hot and humid tropics.
Rgds,
Crocy.
P.S. a few years ago I was buying some Camphor Laurel logs off a guy in Upper Burringbar and be was supplying container loads to South Korea for cutting boards. I can't bring myself to use it though.
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22nd January 2022, 09:48 PM #3GOLD MEMBER
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Any thing you like but they should never be immersed in water, just wet wiped.
Experienced in removing the tree from the furniture
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22nd January 2022, 10:26 PM #4.
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I've lost count of the timbers I have used for cutting boards - these are some I can remember.
- WA redgum
- Spotted gum
- Jarrah
- QLD Red Box
- Pine
- Tuart (that'll be pretty rare in your neck of the woods)
- Blue gum
- Vic Ash
- Sheoak
- Olive
- Red Iron bark
- Nyatoh
- Camphor Laurel
- Lemon Scented gum
In terms of look/feel, my favourite is Olive and least favourite is pine.
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22nd January 2022, 10:58 PM #5Senior Member
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Not easy to get a lot of those species here at the moment - there is a real shortage of timber over here at the moment unfortunately. I'm hoping to be able to recycle some redgum fence posts shortly though, and can get spotted gum, merbau and Tas Oak. Will avoid pine I think.
An olive wood cutting board would look pretty spectacular!
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23rd January 2022, 09:09 AM #6.
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The recycled redgum should look pretty nice.
An olive wood cutting board would look pretty spectacular!
Here are some of the boards I used.
IMG_6183.jpg
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23rd January 2022, 01:03 PM #7GOLD MEMBER
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A Small Lockdown Project
That is a link to my thread of August last year. I finished up making about 12 for relatives to give as Christmas presents. They were various sizes according to what I could cut out of old fence posts. Everyone seemed pleased with the results.Tom
"It's good enough" is low aim
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23rd January 2022, 01:54 PM #8.
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Back in the mid 90s we did a house extension that included one and half flights of jarrah stairs the offcuts of the treads being perfect sizes for bread boards so I made about half a dozen boards for family gifts. They wood was already a deep chocolate brown and when I put the food safe oil on them them they went almost black - still perfectly functional as bread boards.
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23rd January 2022, 03:36 PM #9GOLD MEMBER
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I tend to use Camphor Laurel, Cootamundra Wattle, Silver Ash, Merbau, Sheoak and Purpleheart in any combination.
There are some which you should stay away from such as Mulga. I am lead to believe it is what the aborigines used for spear points but splinters from it are very septic. Visually nice, but I won’t use it for anything in the kitchen.
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23rd January 2022, 04:16 PM #10
I am down in Tassie where most cutting boards are made from Huon pine. Other favoured timbers are celery top pine, sassafras, blackwood, myrtle, cheesewood and whatever else you have on hand.
Originally Posted by Rod1949
One of the reasons that Huon is favoured is because of the anti-bacterial properties of its oils.
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23rd January 2022, 07:31 PM #11.
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All wood is naturally anti-bacterial, some, more so than others, Aussie woods are all on the high anti-bacterial side.
As for the hot water immersion - even the pine boards I made 40+ years ago lasted for at least a decade with a daily wash in hot water but what went first on them was not the wood but the (PVA) glue line. Another large board made out of Oregon (it has 3 glue lines) we use mainly as a trivet is now 26 years old. It doesn't get used all that much but it still seems to have survived the hot water washes without a problem.
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23rd January 2022, 11:02 PM #12
My favourite is a Huon Pine board I made from a piece I picked up while on holiday in Strahan. All my others are made from jarrah and they're great, you just have to account for the higher density of the wood and not make them too heavy.
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24th January 2022, 10:58 AM #13
My boards are up to 40 years old, and I have never had a glue line failure - possibly because they are all single pieces of timber.
Originally Posted by Fergiz01
But there is one exception. I have one large board that is 28mm thick of very heavy CTP from the southern forests that I use (literally) as a chopping board with a cleaver. The size and weight spread and absorb the blows better.
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24th January 2022, 12:36 PM #14GOLD MEMBER
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24th January 2022, 01:01 PM #15GOLD MEMBER
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Kauri and Huon pine. The best of the best. Antibacterial.
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