# oak for cutting board?



## Birchwood (May 13, 2005)

My wood cutting pal gave me a block of wood about 20 X 20 and 4" thick a couple years back-solid white oak. I keep thinking I could cut this down, finish it off nice and make a cutting board for my wife. But you never hear of oak as a cutting board.
What do you guys think. It bugs me to have that beautiful FREE slab of oak just sitting over there under the table saw!. Ha!


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## donald37 (Sep 23, 2006)

Hope oak is ok i just made one 1 3/4 by 24 by 30 looks great


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

White oak is denser than red oak and is an excellent choice for a cutting board. While any wood can be used the goal is resistance to damage caused by the knife. Hard maple seems to be the overall favorite choice.


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## s7horton (Jan 3, 2007)

The one thing I don't like about oak for cutting boards is the open grain. That's typically why you'll see maple, walnut, or cherry for cutting boards. THe more open the grain, the more chance there is to collect bacteria.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Just a note about cutting boards, the best is poly.you can buy the bulk/blank stock and it cuts just like wood plus it's safe, and you don't need to put a finish on it.

You can also buy them done, but it's more fun to make your own with the router 

Poly Cutting Boards

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pr...SPlastic&category_name=20364&product_id=13494

http://freckleface.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/cuttingboards.html

http://www.fantes.com/cutting_boards.htm#poly

Bj


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## Birchwood (May 13, 2005)

Bob3 be right about poly probably being the best, and we have a couple of them. I have two 36'X36 chunks of it about 1 1/2 thick, gift from a meat packing plant and I'm going to use that in strips for "sliders" and maybe even for quick fences. I want to fool around with the white oak just because its sitting there begging to be fashioned into something.


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## PJack (Mar 18, 2007)

I just noticed this thread...Use mineral oil to seal the grain and it should work nicely. The only thing I have heard that is used for end grain butcher blocks is mineral oil. Mineral Oil will keep the wood from drying out, and won't get rancid like a vegetable oil. Then you can use soapy water to clean it and re-apply mineral oil every so often. Look into the sealer stuff used by wood turners to seal it as well, since they make bowls and things used for food.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 6, 2006)

Birch you might want to take a look at this link on cutting board finishing:

http://www.woodfinishsupply.com/butcherblock.html


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## Grandadpjp (Jan 4, 2010)

Hi, I came onto this forum to ask about routing the groove around the perimeter of the white oak cutting board I am making (from sood scrounged from palets) to replace the white poly cutting boards that keep dulling our knives. I too have read of the mineral oil choice. My daughter has a home-made oak cutting board that over about five years of use has developed a lovely dark patina. I suspect she has never re-oiled it. But hot soapy water seems to be all that it needs to keep it clean.
- Peter


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## gallianp (Oct 13, 2009)

Wood or Plastic? Myths about Healthy Chopping Boards

will this change your mind about wood cutting boards...?

Probably not -- but some may find it interesting.. several sites come to the same conclusion -- google it...


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## crquack (Oct 10, 2008)

> will this change your mind about wood cutting boards...?


You beat me to it...


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## morgantruce (Dec 21, 2009)

Gee, I didn't even know I was a member of the _chopping block community._

-----

The best kitchen advice I ever got was from a fellow who worked in a place that sold kitchen cabinets. He, of course, recommended all the usual sort of base cabinets you may find in the kitchen, but when he zeroed in on the "main work area" he said, "Don't install the usual 34-1/2" high base cabinet here. Instead put in a *30-1/4" high* "vanity" type base. Then put a butcher block top on that section. The working height--where you do all of your knife and preparation work--will be perfect! The vanity cabinet is just 21" deep, but bring the face frame in line with the other base cabinets and just ignore the 3" of dead space in the rear."

I followed his advice. I've never missed the 3" of cabinet depth. Every time I cut something on that surface _at that height_ it feels just perfect! And whenever I visit in someone else's kitchen and have the occasion to cut something at "normal" kitchen counter height, I think to myself, "How does _anyone_ manage to control a knife _way up here?_"

By the way, the butcher block top is 36 x 24x 1-1/2"maple, has been washed daily, oiled rarely, and has made made no one ill in the past 25 years. To me, it seems like the very center of the house. (wife rarely cooks...)

------

Postscript: For one year, I managed to pull myself out of the kitchen, and took the family for a long cruise on our sailboat. For that year, our cutting board consisted of a very compact _NSF-Approved_ white plastic cutting board. On at least three occasions (which I recall *vividly*) the whole bunch of us suffered some sort of food-borne illness. Don't ask! While our very modest galley on that boat probably cut corners on quite a few food safety rules, today is the first time I ever considered the possibility that the cutting board might have been the culprit.


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## ebbonk (Dec 29, 2009)

I just recently did one for my daughter and used butcher block oil for the finish.


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## RealCom (Jun 18, 2009)

I use mineral oil from the drug store for all of my cutting boards made of all types of woods. Works great.

Ralph


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## George II (Nov 8, 2007)

gallianp said:


> Wood or Plastic? Myths about Healthy Chopping Boards
> 
> will this change your mind about wood cutting boards...?
> 
> Probably not -- but some may find it interesting.. several sites come to the same conclusion -- google it...


In the day butcher blocks were made of wood...The natural enzymes in wood killed any bacteria..The FDA mandated out the wood and there was and is a increase of salmonella and other bacteria..The wood cutting boards are very safe if common sense is exercised... ( I forgot, common sense is being bred out of the human race)..Treat the cutting board with mineral oil, wash it in hot soapy water, dry it, spray it with vinegar wipe it down with mineral oil..That"s what my grandmother did and none of the family ever got food poisoning..

Sometimes the old ways can not be improved upon...

Regards,
George Cole
"Regulae Stultis Sunt"


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## Customwood (Sep 3, 2017)

Awesome thanks for all the great input 👍👍


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## dovetail_65 (Jan 22, 2008)

Birch said:


> My wood cutting pal gave me a block of wood about 20 X 20 and 4" thick a couple years back-solid white oak. I keep thinking I could cut this down, finish it off nice and make a cutting board for my wife. But you never hear of oak as a cutting board.
> What do you guys think. It bugs me to have that beautiful FREE slab of oak just sitting over there under the table saw!. Ha!



Oak has large pores, thats why it a poor choice for a cutting board. .. "When these pores are cut through they are visible to the naked eye. Large pores cause the same problem as cuts and scratches – they harbor bacteria and can cause water-logging". So Oak is a poor choice and one of the most rare cutting board types sold. A company that specializes in cutting boards may not sell a single Oak board. Tight grain hard woods(as opposed to hardwoods) are best. That being said White Oak is better than Red Oak for a cutting board.



There are actually some mineral oils are not safe(some are mixed with other things), some you can drink or put in your mouth, some used as a laxative. I would watch those that come from China. This is the best I have ever used for wood surfaces and is certified Food safe Mineral Oil(though all mineral oil should be safe once dry anyhow).:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LB7MC4M/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1U3JYLF2Q5Y2Z

Here is a smaller Qty:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XQ329C8?psc=1

This website here has loads of information on cutting boards:

https://www.cuttingboard.com/blog/why-is-maple-the-most-popular-wood-for-cutting-boards/


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

White Oak is a different animal entirely from Red Oak. White Oak was/is used to make wooden barrels and buckets because the cellular structure is different. Water won't soak through it, even over time. It will make an excellent cutting board. If you want to make an even better cutting board, make it an end grain board. The knife goes down between the fibers instead of cutting them, sort of like cutting on top of a bristle brush.


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## dovetail_65 (Jan 22, 2008)

As I said White Oak is better than Red, but it's still not the best for a cutting board because it is an open grain wood. The reasons White Oak is good for barrels are the exact reasons why White Oak is not so good for a cutting board. I collect woods and guess I can get into this topic a bit. This is not to say we can't use White Oak for cutting boards, be my guest, it just isn't the best choice.

The large pores of White Oak(something we dont want in cutting pores) cellular structure allows small amounts of oxygen to permeate barrel staves and diffuse its contents. This diffusion imparts that better cut smell of White Oak has over Red Oak, as the large pores allow the wood cellular structure to accept and modify the liquids it holds. Red Oak gives a more burnt flavor to liquids sitting it it and the pores dont swell enough to make it as water proof like White Oak. White Oak has almost a pickle smell at first that turns any liquid into a Carmel colored flavored drink. The wood cells of white oak also contains a plastic like substance called tyloses in far more abundance than red Oak and this is key as this is what makes White Oak the more durable waterproof wood over Red Oak. 

In 2017 there are far better materials we could use for a barrels just to be waterproof and cheap. So now pretty much the sole reason for using White Oak Barrels is not for holding the liquid. It has far more to do with "aging" the liquid in the white Oak that produces a chemical reaction that gives off a flavor. This White Oak flavor compliments and mixes with the concoction within the barrel to produce a different unique flavor. Again, not what is best for a cutting board and the one reason the main woods used for cutting boards are generally not open pore. We definitely don't want these the cutting boards imparting flavors into liquids or foods(meats etc) and that's exactly why White Oak is used for Barrels in the first place. 

And though cuts arent as bad in white oak verse red it still a far cry from a tight grain wood that even far softer than White Oak.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

How about going the end grain cutting board route?
Or making a serving tray, bread board, drink caddy, small wine storage unit, knife block, trivets for hot dishes at the dn. rm. table,
storage box for steak knives, spice rack, any other ideas?


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

A mid west university did a study years ago when wood was being replaced in commercial facilities with plastic. They found that wood has natural bactericide properties which of course plastic does not. Another thing they found is that oak is one of the woods that is highest in this property because of it's high tannin content. Tannin is part of what keeps wine from spoiling and leather from rotting (hence the term tanned leather). Other woods like birch and maple may be as hard or harder and very closed grain but they aren't nearly as high in tannin content so there may be a trade off between porosity and natural germicidal properties.


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## Knothead47 (Feb 10, 2010)

Checked the link- certain woods are acidic in nature, tannic acid, I recall. Anti-bacterial in fact but the government knows better....I think.
Missed CC's post.


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## dovetail_65 (Jan 22, 2008)

Tannin in wood(tannin is found in nearly every family of plant) is one reason I believe that wood is better for a cutting boards. The Oaks aren't the only woods to have Tannin(though it super high in Oaks as stated), so for the over all debate on plastic verse wood debate I agree, tannin is one thing to check off on the wood pros list for cutting boards. 

If we ask what are the best woods for cutting Board White Oak isn't top of the list. I do believe for me a White Oak cutting board is still better than plastic though. Using Mineral oil and then keeping it clean would be even more important than some other woods. And White Oak is definitely the choice over Red Oak for a cutting board no question, but End grain red oak is going to even work, just not the best choice.

Wood won't hold bacteria long enough to do us damage no matter the wood or tannin levels(although it does get into the pores and live for awhile). 

UC-Davis Food Safety Laboratory: Cutting Board Research

Exotics are the only woods I do no recommend for cutting boards from a safety standpoint unless they are very specific exotics. If you aren't sure of the exact species don't use them. And yes I have made cutting boards using exotics, even one using woods I wouldn't use myself, the client is the boss after all, but I sold it as an art piece.


I am not arguing White Oak can't be used for a cutting board, just that it isn't the best choice.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Interesting article DT. The fact is that wooden cutting boards have been used for who knows how many centuries without there being any significant link to illness from the use of them. Like so many things these days I think some bureaucrat somewhere came up with the idea that they weren't safe and that plastic would be better without doing the proper testing to make sure, and it turns out they were wrong.

As far as woods which are appropriate there some woods which can be toxic such as yew for example. It is near or at the top of the list. However, an article I read suggested that used in a cutting board the risk is quite low, that toxicity would be more likely in the form of an allergic reaction which is extremely hard to predict and fairly rare. The most common and most dangerous form of toxicity is in the inhalation of dust particles instead.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Charles; you remember that huge kerfuffle in Vancouver's Chinatown a couple or three decades ago, over the Chinese grocers hanging BBQ'd duck in the their shop windows? The Health Inspectors were freaking out because the meat wasn't being refrigerated.
Funny; the Chinese have been hanging their BBQ'd duck like that for at least a couple of thousand years. At least a hundred of them in Vamcouver. Common sense prevailed, as I recall.
Nobody was being forced to buy it in any case.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

PJack said:


> Mineral Oil will keep the wood from drying out, and won't get rancid like a vegetable oil.


I heard that for years, vegetable oil will get rancid. But from what I'd seen it didn't. So contacted a food nutrition professor at the local university. He said it will only go rancid if it is heated, to a high temperature, as in cooking. 

So, I took him at his word and have used it on a number of projects, and no issues with it going rancid at all. One of my sons left a rake on the ground, and I didn't find it until about a year later, covered in leaves. and the ha ndle had totally rotted away. Got another, it wound up on the ground too. But this one started putting on a coat of vegetable oil every couple of weeks or so. Wound up on the ground again, and again, and again. And no rot at all. Dunno how it would be on a cutting board tho.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

One of the ingredients of the food service acceptable oils for cutting boards is mainly mineral oil like you would buy from the drugstore. I think there may have been some beeswax in one or two added to the oil. I thought I'd try cooking oil for honing compound once. Turned out to not be a good idea, it got sticky as it dried. I think it might do the same thing on a cutting board.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Mineral oil is a lovely product to work with...it dries almost overnight. Vegetable oil; not so much.
I've tried both the 'Light' and 'Heavy' forms of the Mineral oil and I prefer the Light, hands down.


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Vegetable oil will go rancid, mineral oil won't unless it has some additives that will take it south. We use pure mineral oil on all the cutting boards we make and have for several years. We just get the stuff in the drug section at Walmart but we make sure it's pure. Then we add beeswax to the final coat and let it soak in overnight. They have never come out sticky, not even close.

David


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

RealCom said:


> I use mineral oil from the drug store for all of my cutting boards made of all types of woods. Works great.
> 
> Ralph


The grocery store I frequent carries it.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

​


Cherryville Chuck said:


> I thought I'd try cooking oil for honing compound once. Turned out to not be a good idea, it got sticky as it dried. I think it might do the same thing on a cutting board.


Fortunately I don't hone with oil, or I'd probably have tried that too.
I've got a double rocker sitting in my front room that I made probably 25 years ago. Finish is cooking oil. It dried quickly, and has held up well. And it never went rancid.


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## dovetail_65 (Jan 22, 2008)

How would know if it went rancid on a chair? You couldn't know.

When we use vegetable oil on a cutting board and it goes rancid what we mean is the oil breaks down in a way it transfers a horrible taste to food cut on the board, especially foods that have liquid in it, like meat.

There is no way you would know the finish went rancid on a chair, you can't see it. You might be able to smell it, but on a chair I doubt it. On a cutting board it is sometimes easy to smell and some just dont realize that certain smell is the oil going rancid. But even if there is no smell and many times there isn't much of a bad smell, the problem is still there. The oil that experiences rancidification, touches the food and causes the food itself to taste different at best and at worst horrible. That's what people that say they used oil and it works don't realize, that it's the food that gets effected even if the board itself isn't emanating the odor very much, if at all.

Vegetable oil is simply the wrong thing to use on a cutting board and any woodworker that is also a cook knows this. The link below has information on finish for cutting boards, it is one of thousands of pages like this. And the main thing all these articles have in common is that we should never use oil for cutting boards. I just dont see why anyone would, it doesn't save any money.

https://www.cuttingboard.com/blog/what-type-of-oils-are-safe-to-use-on-your-cutting-board/


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## hankh (Jun 25, 2013)

Picking up on an old thread - I am making my first cutting board. I see that nobody referred to boiled linseed oil for a cutting board. Is it so obvious that it's a a n-o-no?


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

oak is a really bad choice because of the open grain...
maple is the only wood approved by the FDA...
stick w/ mineral oil.. you can't go wrong...

*Here's a fairly in depth break down...*


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## hankh (Jun 25, 2013)

Searching on the net, I see that the problem with BLO is that it likely has additives which may not be food-safe. So it's back to mineral oil. Ikea has its own brand, Behandla which it claims is safe and good for cutting boards. Anyone have experience/an opinion. What about adding some beeswax to mineral oil, or is all this just complicating a simple task of applying mineral oil?


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

when all else fails...
fall back to KISS/MISS...


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I've heard of adding beeswax and it may help seal pores plus honey is naturally anti-bacterial so beeswax may be too. I've read that honey was used during the Civil War to coat freshly amputated limbs.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Re the 20" x20" x 4" slab. Personally I'd be inclined to rip it into 2" wide strips, then make those into 2 x 2 x 20 " strips. From there glue it back together into a 20" by 12 or 14" x 2" thick panel. From there crosscut 1 1/2" to 2" strips off and assemble as an endgrain board, maybe with accents of a darker wood .
At each stage pay attention to the grain! If you alternate the grain in the strips it'll look a lot more interesting. 
The only reason I mention this is because the 4" thickness will not be fun to deal with and it's massive.
In addition conventional wisdom is that end grain is kinder to your kitchen knives' edges.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Oops...I just noticed that the original post was _*8 years ago! *_
I'l be writing on the blackboard til after dark...


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

Yep, old thread. I must have gotten tired of reading it, because I missed replying to the cooking oil on the rocker.

You can tell it did not go rancid, because it does not smell bad. Before I tried it, I checked with a professor at the local university - food expert or some such. And the answer is, use uncooked/unheated cooking oil. If cooking oil is heated to above a certain temperature it will go rancid. Don't heat it, it will work And it has worked, on the rocker, and several other projects, for somewhere close to 20 years. I don't use t anymore, don't use that ugly rocker either, but both have held up. Now my finish is usually several coats of thinned Titebond II. That holds up well also. Checked that with the glue guys at the 1-800 number before I tried it. I do research this kind of stuff.


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## hankh (Jun 25, 2013)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> I've heard of adding beeswax and it may help seal pores plus honey is naturally anti-bacterial so beeswax may be too. I've read that honey was used during the Civil War to coat freshly amputated limbs.


Hmmm - the association between cutting board and amputation, even Civil War, not sure about that.:fie:


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

It was about the anti bacterial properties of honey, which may also apply to the beeswax. The fact that it was used in field amputations during the Civil War is proof of it's effectiveness.


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