Brazilian Cherry Wood for Cutting Board

[captaincaed]

@captaincaed, I have a thirty year old board I’ve only used for carving roasts that could use a refresh. Edge grain American cherry. What progression? Like knives, 240-320-400?

I agree with @John Loftis. Get the hard work done at 60-80 grit (and like knives, spend a little longer than you think, hidden scratches and whatnot). The rest of the sanding after should go quick. If you want to know what it will look like after oil you can use a spray bottle full of water, and it will help reveal any marks before you move on to the next grit.

If it's already oiled, expected to clog the sandpaper. If you have a hand plane, it might make your life a little easier, but if you dig the grain out, it might make your life a little harder. Your call.

would love to see refinished pictures!

 

[naptight]

What are the dimensions of your board?

38 in x 15.5 in x 2 in

I used a 5' x 11" stick of 8/4 Hard Maple.

 

[captaincaed]

@John Loftis
What do your data tell you about edge life in knives for edge vs end grain boards.

I happily shot my mouth off as is tradition in the forum, but I'd be genuinely curious to hear what you have to say.

 

[John Loftis]

38 in x 15.5 in x 2 in

I used a 5' x 11" stick of 8/4 Hard Maple.

That is a beast! I would normally go at least 2 1/4” thick for that surface area. If you resaw it down to 1”, it will curl up like a potato chip. Normally a board that big just lives in a spot on the counter and doesn’t get moved around much. Clean it in place with a spray bottle of water and vinegar.

 

[John Loftis]

@John Loftis
What do your data tell you about edge life in knives for edge vs end grain boards.

I happily shot my mouth off as is tradition in the forum, but I'd be genuinely curious to hear what you have to say.

I don’t have hard data, and I make 98 end grain for every 2 edge grain. But I don’t think knife edge retention is substantively different between end and edge grain. I think the main benefits of end grain are scratch resistance and knife feel. For an identical janka hardness, end grain maple (or walnut etc) resists scratching so much better than edge grain maple. Even ignoring aesthetics, that translates into a much longer-lived board, unless you are a woodworker and like refinishing edge grain.

Knife feel is a huge, if under-reported, benefit. I get so many emails from customers reporting how surprised and delighted they were from the feedback of using an end grain board. I hear, “it’s such a pleasure to use,” almost daily. Which is why I do what I do. It feels great to make something well that brings people pleasure. I bet a lot of chefs identify with that.

 

[captaincaed]

Knife feel is a huge, if under-reported, benefit.

I wholeheartedly agree. Even for equal or greater hardness species, it matters. It's like using fountain pens on purpose made paper vs Moleskine. Moleskine is still nice paper, but there's better.

I guess in this analogy plastic boards are newsprint maybe?

 

[TB_London]

I don’t have hard data, and I make 98 end grain for every 2 edge grain. But I don’t think knife edge retention is substantively different between end and edge grain. I think the main benefits of end grain are scratch resistance and knife feel. For an identical janka hardness, end grain maple (or walnut etc) resists scratching so much better than edge grain maple. Even ignoring aesthetics, that translates into a much longer-lived board, unless you are a woodworker and like refinishing edge grain.

Knife feel is a huge, if under-reported, benefit. I get so many emails from customers reporting how surprised and delighted they were from the feedback of using an end grain board. I hear, “it’s such a pleasure to use,” almost daily. Which is why I do what I do. It feels great to make something well that brings people pleasure. I bet a lot of chefs identify with that.

For me knife feel is a big part that people overlook and need a nudge to think about more.
I’d also agree with your customers that my boardsmith has the best knife feel of all my boards

 

[Corradobrit1]

No complaints with the feedback using high hrc steels from the likes of honyaki and TF on my endgrain walnut boards. Like Jovidah says, in a home kitchen it's more about the feel and appearance than absolute edge retention. And I have absolutely zero desire to destroy the board makers finish or my hard efforts to maintain oil saturation over the years by attacking it with sandpaper.

 

[SwampDonkey]

Both of these are teak, but the end-grain feels leagues better than edge-grain sitting atop it. Feels softer, whereas the edge-grain feels significantly more like your cutting on a hard, wooden surface. John is absolutely right about size, the big board just lives on the counter.

 

[Jovidah]

Wow nice!

Teak is for boats. I take ATK with a huge grain of salt. They're very hard on equipment.

I have to admit ATK made me frown a few times too over the years..... The main issue is normally the selection of products; doing a stainless skillet test without Demeyere, doing a mandolin test without Benriner, never having any Ikea products in there, etc.
I think their cleaning regime, where they insist on basically drowning the thing in the sink, played a large role in them having a teak wood winner, simply because it handles watery abuse better.
That actually has me wondering; @John Loftis how did you as a relatively small operation get included in that test? I was actually surprised to see you up there since ATK normally only includes larger volume producers.

 

[dglevy]

I'm a fan of pine too.The wood is cheap and its easy to make a cutting board at home with few tools. But are you saying that end versus edge grain has little impact on knife edge life, in general? That's surprising to me. I thought the consensus was that end grain is better for edge retention.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my query - hugely helpful! I'm going to share this thread with my niece and nephew, who are both woodworkers. We had a huge discussion on this topic a few days ago, which prompted my query. They will appreciate the input.

 

[Jovidah]

On the subject of pine... I noticed that the Japanese are basically the only ones using it? Never really saw pine wood boards here in Europe, even though pine is abundant and really cheap - cheaper even than beech wood.
I have a suspicion that there's probably a good reason it's not being used for cutting boards, but anyone know what it is?

 

[captaincaed]

Larch is similar to pine, and there's a company doing nothing but larch.

Otherwise, no clue. We make houses out of pine and fir. No reason to think it isn't durable.

https://www.wood-database.com/tamarack/

 

[naptight]

Idk pine just seems too soft. The white pine I see locally has a Janka of 380 lbf. While the doug fir they use for 2x4s has a Janka of 710 lbf. One of the lightest and softest non-toxic hardwoods I've work with is alder. The stuff that is widely sold around me in Southern California has a Janka of 590 lbf and weighs half a much as the hard maple I made my big board out of.

I didn't know that the weight of my but big board was going to make it so hard to wash. Maybe I should make another out of something lighter.

 

[captaincaed]

I didn't know that the weight of my but board was going to make it so hard to wash.

My female testers especially liked a combo cherry/alder board for just this reason. Honestly plenty tough for anything lighter than cleaver bashing.

 

[240_Gyutos_Only]

On the subject of pine... I noticed that the Japanese are basically the only ones using it? Never really saw pine wood boards here in Europe, even though pine is abundant and really cheap - cheaper even than beech wood.
I have a suspicion that there's probably a good reason it's not being used for cutting boards, but anyone know what it is?

I tried a Hinoki board for about 3 years of home use. Hinoki uses a soft wood very similar to pine (technically maybe it is a pine? I can't tell the difference). It was extremely soft, to the point where a strong chop would dig several mm into the board. And dropping a knife tip on the board could take out a big chunk of the board, I had a few holes in mine from this. Sliding a knife across the board horizontally, like what people do w/ chinese cleavers to scoop food, could easily dig way into the surface if not done carefully. At the end of the 3 years the board was shot, full of deep cuts throughout.

It was definitely very soft on my edges but I recall seeing a study indicating that unevenness in boards causes knives to wear faster, so after the board is full of deep cutting marks it will wear the knife edge faster. And it becomes less hygienic with all those deep cuts to harbor bacteria. Needless to say I won't be buying another Hinoki because of the poor durability.

 

[JASinIL2006]

I just watched that ATK review of cutting boards and I was very disappointed. I really question their product review process; they seem to value very different aspects of products than I do, and in some cases, their testing methodology is just weird.