Choice of wood for a Cutting Board?

[Al Launier]

I'm about to start a new small project: a few end grain cutting boards as gifts, in a checkerboard design, using available wood I have on hand. These include black walnut, poplar & red oak. I'm thinking the walnut & poplar would be a better choice as I believe the red oak really soaks up a lot of water & despite using butcher block oil to finish it off with, I suspect that despite renewing the oil the red oak may still allow moisture, i.e. blood, etc. to be absorbed into the wood.

I’d appreciate your thoughts on this and please suggest other woods that “wood” be a better choice or cutting boards. Thanks.

[Bruce Wrenn]

The poplar is to soft,and rots VERY easily. Cherry, walnut, beech and hard maple would be my choices.

[Lee Schierer]

You'll want to stay away from red oak as it is an open pore wood. There are small tubes running through the wood that will soak up fluids and then allow bacteria to grow. You can actually blow through pieces that are an inch or more thick. Poplar is also pretty soft and will likely get chewed up by knives when cutting on it.

[cody michael]

I've used black walnut, maple, and apple wood all turned out pretty well

[Prashun Patel]

I'm partial to cherry, walnut, and maple. Maple is probably the best for me, since it's cheap and hard.

[Mark Patoka]

I would shy away from the poplar also. As others mentioned, it's just way too soft and won't survive much use. I did make an endgrain board entirely from red oak but we use it primarily as a hot pad and not a cutting board so I can't attest to how much gunk would get stuck in the capillaries. Some red oak is not as porous or is very tight-pored on the endgrain so you could possibly use it, especially if you treated it with an oil/wax to fill the pores as much as possible. If you're making it more for design than utility, than go ahead.

[David B Thornton]

I'm with what others have said and my go to choices are walnut, maple and purpleheart. I'll be expanding into cherry and a few others too.

[Jim German]

I'm with what others have said and my go to choices are walnut, maple and purpleheart. I'll be expanding into cherry and a few others too.

I've used those and some pear wood too.
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[Jeffrey Martel]

Any small pored hardwood would work well. Poplar would probably be ok, but it's a bit soft. I typically use Maple, Walnut, or various exotics.

[Rob Duke]

I've only used cherry and maple. Both work very well.

Red Oak is a no-no
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[Rob Duke]

Maple, cherry and red oak all at 10X

Maple

Cherry

Red Oak

[Phil Mueller]

I too have used walnut, maple and purpleheart. I read somewhere to be cautious of walnut if the user has nut allergies. Regarding maple, I use rock or hard maple...not soft maple. Not sure if it really makes a difference (?)

[Ellery Becnel]

Some woods that I have used for end grain cutting boards are: Black Walnut, Cherry, Hard Maple, Jarrah, European Beech, Tineo, Osage Orange(Argentina), Purple Heart, Mahogany, Yellow Heart, White Oak, Pecan, Red Cumaru, Red Heart, Goncalco Alves. I agree, stay away from poplar, and Red Oak. Too soft, and too porous.

Ellery Becnel

[William A Johnston]

If you look at the Janka scale.

Black Walnut 1010
Soft Maple 950
Polar 540
Hard Maple 1450
Cherry 950

From what I've read you want to stay within 850-1800 on the Janka scale for a cutting board.

I like to use walnut and soft maple as they are similar in hardness. I haven't tried Cherry yet but I bet its beautiful. I would not use Poplar as it is very soft.

You don't want the board to soft as it will scratch up and to hard will dull your knives.

Why not do a solid walnut board?

[Clay Fails]

My vote is for maple, walnut and maybe cherry. I've made end grain boards out of many species, but always come back to these basics. They work.