Butcher chopping block in Australia?

Hi guys, I am looking to get a chopping board myself and have recently found out about the end grain wood and whatnot.

I have a couple of questions.

Does all end grain wood chopping or butcher block are all same?
Or will there be some dodgy ones out there even if they are end grain? (I mean online shopping such as amaZon, eBay.

I have been looking at kkf vendor, board smith but including shipping is gonna cost a lot.

Any recommendation to end grain ones?

I heard there are maple, walnut and black cherry. Is there much differences to them?

I reallly like to keep my knives edge as much as possible.

hentaides said:

Hi guys, I am looking to get a chopping board myself and have recently found out about the end grain wood and whatnot.

I have a couple of questions.

Does all end grain wood chopping or butcher block are all same?
Or will there be some dodgy ones out there even if they are end grain? (I mean online shopping such as amaZon, eBay.

I have been looking at kkf vendor, board smith but including shipping is gonna cost a lot.

Any recommendation to end grain ones?

I heard there are maple, walnut and black cherry. Is there much differences to them?

I reallly like to keep my knives edge as much as possible.

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I think there is probably a lot of variation in the quality of end grain boards. Get a quality one.

I have one from choppa block in Adelaide. I was impressed enough to buy another as a gift. They make them in many different kinds of Aussie wood. They are fairly thick boards which apparently helps to prevent warping. They claim to be finnicky about the way in which they use their glues which is also claimed to reduce warping. They come with feet on the back so the board dries on the underside- apparently (you guessed it...) minimises warping.

Basically, the harder the wood, the worse for your knives' edges but the more durable the board. Their website has a section on how to chose the wood.

Mine is Jarrah (middling hardness) and is used pretty much every day for 18 plus months. Shows a few score marks (especially where someone used a serrated steak knife like a saw to cut through sandwhiches) but no warping.

The alternative is to buy one of the KnS rubber (or maybe the newer wooden core rubber) boards. I use one as a meat board (goes into the diswasher fine) and I could imagine using one as an everyday board.

As Nemo suggested, there's Choppa Block.

I have a fairly generic acacia board for aud 70ish, 35cmx50cm about 4cm thick.
They seem to be available from a number of outlets.
I sanded off a lacquer coating and oiled it well.

I've also been eyeing EndGrainHobby on Etsy, does some nice looking custom boards, but have no experience of his work.

Soft boards are recommended as they are easier on your edge.
My acacia boiard is relatively hard but I don't seem to need to do much sharpening.