Filling small cracks in cutting board

[merlijny2k]

I got a nice used endgrain olivewood cutting board, but it has a few minor delamination cracks. It doesn't appear very serious and I got it very cheap so I am not going to complain about it.

What is best for filling them? A pasty glue? A drying oil?

Thanks for your suggestions

 

[milkbaby]

I'm surprised nobody responded yet. I'm not a woodworker but I do a lot of research because my hobby is making knives and starting to make some simple cutting boards.

The solutions that I've found online have been to fill the gaps with glue and sanding dust from the same piece (or same wood). Titebond III is food safe and what I use for making wooden saya; however, I don't believe it's meant to be gap filling for a large gap. I've read other people use a two part epoxy for filling gaps. I would mask off the gap with painter's tape so that you don't get too much glue on the endgrain around the repair because it has the potential to discolor the spots where it soaks into the grain.

Titebond III you can easily clean up with water or wet towel while wet (not dried yet). Epoxy you'll want to use isopropanol to clean off, so again that may be more likely to discolor the surrounding wood.

 

[McMan]

Depending on how big the cracks are... I've had good results with beeswax for thin cracks at the seams. Requires no sanding or cleanup, is renewable, etc...
Just soften (don't melt!) a little beeswax in the microwave, fill the cracks, and wipe off the excess. The beeswax will harden and fill the crack. Might take a try or two to get it tightly packed well enough, but once it's in there it stays for a while.

 

[Tim Rowland]

If it is a smaller crack one of my favorite wood working finishes that is food safe is Odie's Oil. As a surface treatment it will actually harden like a top coat stabilizer and become very water resistant so I am only assuming that in a small crack it should fill and harden with a few applications and then simply sand flush if needed.

 

[Matus]

What milkbaby said. Titebond III and wood dust.

Do NOT use epoxy or CA glue - that stuff is NOT edible (full of BPA).

 

[merlijny2k]

Thanks. Good thing I hadn't started yet. Epoxy is the only one I have in-house so that would have probably been the one. See what I can get locally in the wax and tightbond department.