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Choosing Wood for End Grain Cutting Boards

After making dozens of end grain cutting boards over the past couple years I wanted to share a bit about which woods I consider the best (and most available) for constructing boards.  We’ve said, time and again, that end grain is the premium construction method for cutting boards because of it’s antibacterial properties and kindness to our knife edges. A crucial basis for determining the wood we use is in it’s hardness.  I’ve found the best online source for wood characteristics, including hardness is:  http://www.wood-database.com/  When looking through the database, try to select wood in the hardness range of 850 - 1700; You also want to look for a hardwood with a relatively tight grain pattern, free of knots and other blemishes.  The most common...

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