Quote Originally Posted by Perry Hilbert Jr View Post
Oak in general is too open grain and meat juices, blood etc seeps deep into the pores of both red and white oak. Hard to get it back out or to keep it out without a sealer and other treatment. The finer the grain the wood the better, which is why maple is one of the better cutting board woods. I suppose you could treat oak with many coats of mineral oil to let the wood fill up with oil, but I would avoid oak because of the open grain. I made a cutting board in High school shop class from birch. A little soft, but 50 years later still in service.
Red oak yes, too open grained as previously mentioned by John K Jordan, however white oak should be OK as the pores are naturally sealed.