Large Boards To Cut On

Large Boards To Cut On Leave a comment

As we reach the end of the year, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the ~~garage~~ woodshop to get enough boards ready to fill out the inventory for the holiday season.

Here, for your consideration:

2 different 14″ x 18″ edge grain boards … simple, relatively light boards that are big enough to do just about anything.
3 different large end grain cutting boards, which are actually my favorite boards to make. These are generational boards: with proper care, they will last for decades. My job is to make sure that they’ll look good doing it, too!

I’ve used a lot of Hard Maple in these boards. I had made several darker boards without Hard Maple over the last few months, and I felt the itch to return to the classic. Hard Maple end grain boards are the traditional butcher blocks, and they’ve been in use for centuries. The FDA and almost all state laws actually state that commercial wooden cutting boards should be Hard Maple “or its equivalent,” and I deal a lot in the equivalents.

Today, though, I celebrate the original … with some nice colorful & decorative touches added in from Africa (Purpleheart & Padauk) and Central & South America (Bloodwood, Jatoba & Canarywood) .