Thread: (best and worst) Timbers for cutting boards?

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.

Any thing you like but they should never be immersed in water, just wet wiped.

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.

Originally Posted by BobL

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.

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!

Originally Posted by RSD

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.

The recycled redgum should look pretty nice.

An olive wood cutting board would look pretty spectacular!

This was made as a gift but I didn't take any photos.
Here are some of the boards I used.
IMG_6183.jpg

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.

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.

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.

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

... Any thing you like but they should never be immersed in water, just wet wiped. ...

I think that this recommendation is dangerously wrong. Cut some meat, fish, salami or even cheese on a cutting board and not wash it properly and you are inviting the growth of bacteria. Our cutting boards are washed in hot soapy water after evey use with zero ill effect on the timber.

One of the reasons that Huon is favoured is because of the anti-bacterial properties of its oils.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

. . . . .One of the reasons that Huon is favoured is because of the anti-bacterial properties of its oils.

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.

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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Originally Posted by BobL

... 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. ...

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

... 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. ...

Good point. Over the years, my boards have progressively decreased in thickness from around one inch to 10mm, and the boards have got smaller, too.

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.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

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.




I think that this recommendation is dangerously wrong. Cut some meat, fish, salami or even cheese on a cutting board and not wash it properly and you are inviting the growth of bacteria. Our cutting boards are washed in hot soapy water after evey use with zero ill effect on the timber.

One of the reasons that Huon is favoured is because of the anti-bacterial properties of its oils.

Been not doing it for years and years and I'm still here.

Kauri and Huon pine. The best of the best. Antibacterial.