Oftentimes when I'm seeking advice from friends who are authorities in different areas of life I’m less interested in options and more interested in concrete recommendations. With that in mind, I'm offering my favorite woods that I use along with my reasons why. First off, I use primarily hardwoods. Softwoods like pine are great for construction but they lack the stability needed for cutting boards, utensils, etc. My “go to” woods are maple, cherry and walnut because of their hardness and contrast with each other; oftentimes I will substitute mahogany or padauk for the walnut while keeping similar characteristics. Of these my favorite wood to use (perhaps surprisingly) is maple. It is a clean, light colored wood that shows its...
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...
