Cutting board

gmanrva

Bought this from greenriverwoods, Took 6 months to get but worth the wait. Very happy with it.

johnmitchell

My wife bought me this butchers block a few years ago.I wish I new the backstory on it.

Mark_B_Good

Got my board!! Found a guy on kijiji (Ontario version of Craigslist), that was getting rid of all his stock, 50% off. Paid $80 for this 20" x 16" end grain maple beauty.

jdMyers

Goto your local plastic shop that cute polished and works with plastic.  They can cut you one out of white delrin cutting viard material any size and shape routed etc you want.  $70 maybe.  I had a piece cut to out on top a 55 gallon trash can like the school drum on wheels.  Had a smaller piece on the bottom to wedge into the can woth cup holders.  $125

gbvinla

EggNorth said:

gbvinla said:

For meats I would prefer plastic as opposed to wood simply for the contamination issues. For vegetables, I have a medium sized wood one.

 I read somewhere on the internet (so must be true  ) that bacteria lives longer on plastic than wood.

That may very well be true, but my intentions are to put the plastic one in the dishwasher. 

CTMike

Mark_B_Good said:

Got my board!! Found a guy on kijiji (Ontario version of Craigslist), that was getting rid of all his stock, 50% off. Paid $80 for this 20" x 16" end grain maple beauty.

Nice board. Get yourself some pure beeswax and mix 1 part wax to 4 parts food grade mineral oil and butter it a couple times a year.

Additionally it doesn’t look like it has rubber feet on the bottom so ensure you don’t let water get underneath it when sitting on the counter - that is a recipe for causing it to crack. Personally I would pick the best side and put rubber feet on the other side to prevent the possibility. 

Carolina Q

CTMike said:

Additionally it doesn’t look like it has rubber feet on the bottom so ensure you don’t let water get underneath it when sitting on the counter - that is a recipe for causing it to crack. Personally I would pick the best side and put rubber feet on the other side to prevent the possibility. 

Get four of these. Rock solid non-slip and about 3/8" thick. If your board is reversible, it will remain so as they don't have to be attached. And no water issues. Been using them for several years now.

Mark_B_Good

CTMike said:

Mark_B_Good said:

Got my board!! Found a guy on kijiji (Ontario version of Craigslist), that was getting rid of all his stock, 50% off. Paid $80 for this 20" x 16" end grain maple beauty.

Nice board. Get yourself some pure beeswax and mix 1 part wax to 4 parts food grade mineral oil and butter it a couple times a year.

Additionally it doesn’t look like it has rubber feet on the bottom so ensure you don’t let water get underneath it when sitting on the counter - that is a recipe for causing it to crack. Personally I would pick the best side and put rubber feet on the other side to prevent the possibility. 

Thanks @CTMike, good suggestion! @Carolina Q, I just so happen to have 4 of those types of rubber feet!

HeavyG

I don't like feet on cutting boards nor do I find them necessary.

If I find that the countertop I'm working on is already wet or messy and I want to lift the board above the surface or if the board might be moving around I just use what I already have - a dozen or so in a couple drawers in the kitchen - these type of silicone thingies:

I use them as trivets for hot things, to pull hot things out of the oven, put hot things back in the oven, put under a cutting board, dry fragile glassware, keep something from from scratching the countertop/table, dirty spoon/ladle rest, whatever.

Also great for when you are mixing stuff in a bowl, which is easier if the bowl isn't sliding around - throw one on the counter and bowl on top. Problem solved.

They come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes, patterns. Clean easily in the dishwasher. Wouldn't live without them.

WeberWho

HeavyG said:

I don't like feet on cutting boards nor do I find them necessary.

If I find that the countertop I'm working on is already wet or messy and I want to lift the board above the surface or if the board might be moving around I just use what I already have - a dozen or so in a couple drawers in the kitchen - these type of silicone thingies

I use them as trivets for hot things, to pull hot things out of the oven, put hot things back in the oven, put under a cutting board, dry fragile glassware, keep something from from scratching the countertop/table, dirty spoon/ladle rest, whatever.

Also great for when you are mixing stuff in a bowl, which is easier if the bowl isn't sliding around - throw one on the counter and bowl on top. Problem solved.

They come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, sizes, patterns. Clean easily in the dishwasher. Wouldn't live without them.

+1. My cutting board sits really tall as it's 4" thick. I can't afford to go any taller with it sitting on top of the counter for height. I found those grippy pads work great for keeping the board in place. 

nolaegghead

Nice if you can alternate using both sides of the board.  Whenever you oil (or whatever) it, do both sides equally.  When you wash it, wet the unused side also.  If you follow those simple rules, you won't get cupping, bowing, crooking, etc from one side of the board swelling (expanding) at a greater rate than the other. Don't let the board sit in water. Feet force you to only use one side, that's ok if you wash and oil both sides. 

fishlessman

Langner91 said:

What material are you looking for?  Wood, Plastic?

If I were looking for something that large, I would look at buying just a piece of HDPE material in the size you want.  

Although, this one looks pretty cheap, but it doesn't have a channel.

regardless what you get for a cutting board get one of these as well, comes in very handy indoors on the table, you can leave it outdoors, get a hole cut in the corner for a rope for hanging, mines in the lake alot after fish cleaning. mines bigger than this and its easy to hose off

ColtsFan

The rubber feet are nice and a must have when trying to move a big board. It's nice being able to get my fingers under the 35 lbs block

Botch

nolaegghead said:

Nice if you can alternate using both sides of the board.  Whenever you oil (or whatever) it, do both sides equally.  When you wash it, wet the unused side also.  If you follow those simple rules, you won't get cupping, bowing, crooking, etc from one side of the board swelling (expanding) at a greater rate than the other. Don't let the board sit in water. Feet force you to only use one side, that's ok if you wash and oil both sides. 

I read your post, Carey, and the light bulb flickered, slightly, above my head, then went dark; it flickered again, and finally came on.  I owe you a beer.
 
I have a nice, ~$100 end-grain board made out of acacia, can't remember where I bought it (at least two folks on this forum have the same board).  I failed to oil it regularly, and as such it finally cupped, concave on the cutting side, so much that it spins on the center, even with thin rubber feet that I had attached.  
 
I didn't want to put it thru my planer, as the faces are all end-grain and it'd be tearout-city.  I do have a very sharp jointer plane, but again it made me nervous.  The local mill in Ogden does have a 48" belt sander, I toyed with the idea of asking the owner to flatten my board when he had a medium-grit belt that he was about ready to toss, as there's plenty of oil soaked into my board.
 
Tomorrow, I shall take a chisel and remove the four rubber feet, sand off any residue, buy four more, thicker, feet, and attach them to the other side, so I have a convex cutting surface!  (insert violent face-palm meme here).  I do have a smaller white poly board that I use for smaller cuts of meat, it might now spin on the top of my wood board, but I can just set that aside on the counter (which is now much less cluttered, since retirement).  (I do have a separate, cheepie board under the sink with a channel in it, that I use for large juicy meats like brisket and whole cheekuns).  
 
Another problem, solved.     

Botch

Oh, and another idea I've been playing with:  routing a quarter-round concave groove around the outside bottom edges of the ends of my acacia cutting board.  
Why?  I cook a lot of chinese-style dishes, and often have several small piles of different veggies on my cutting board, to be thrown into the wok at different points.  Because I use a chef's knife, and not a cleaver, it isn't practical to pick up a pile with the knife for transfer; sometimes I slide the cutting board over the edge of the countertop, and scrape the pile into my hand, but that requires three separate movements, and do have/sometimes use one of those dustpan-looking thingies, but that's another utensil to wash/store.  First-World Problems!!  
If I had a groove at the bottom of my board edge (and yeah, it only needs to be on the left-hand side, as I scrape right-handed!) I could just lay the back of my hand on the counter, slide it up against the cutting board until my pinkie and edge of palm are underneath, and scrape the pile right into my hand; I think that would work so nicely.  
Tomorrow, I'm doing this.  Will post pics.   

nolaegghead

@botch - you got it!  One mistake people make....(and I made it once)....plane or sand a warped board straight. Of course it will dry out crooked/warped/cupped. 

I bought a highly discounted end grain board a few years back.  2"x20"x30"-ish.  Terrible reviews.  "board warped and cracked".  Over and over.  Gee, did they just happen to use wood oriented the wrong way, lousy glue?  No.  People let one side stay wet too long without taking care of the boards. 

Anyway, I soaked it for 2 days in mineral oil on both sides.  Alternate sides, let it dry out standing up when not using it.   Never a problem.

Never had a problem with long-grain bamboo boards tho.  Guess the bamboo is naturally water resistant.  They do eat up your knives faster then edge grain.

My cutting board table gets convex on the cutting side.  I flip it over every few years.  I do resurface with a sander as it gets chewed up from knives. But I don't try to take the warp out (one time I ripped it into two or three sections and ran each through the planer and glued back together).  Too much work/never again.

nolaegghead

Flat as Gwyneth Paltrow 

nolaegghead

BTW - the "I'm not drunk...I'm speaking cursive" sign isn't exactly my style, but bgebrent sent do us and it reminds us of all the good times we had speaking in cursive through past years.  That will be one of the first things I grab on the way out of the house on fire.