End-Grain Cutting Board Failure

[Joe Jensen]

Grain orientation and species matter. Most woods move 3X more across the grain (with the gain lines) than through the grain (perpendicular to the grain). Looks like the extreme water exposure did this to the boards. Read the book "Understanding Wood" for guidance

[Mark Bolton]

Floating in water is just about as bad as the dishwaser especially for end grain. Your 3rd photo shows tangential movement clearly. The two segments orientation have tangential shrinkage with the segment on the left in the image having more than the segment on the right so you have a hair line starting on the right and a large gap on the left. The joint on the farther left has that constrained because the joint wants to open up on the field side of the board not the edge. Second image shows as Johnny said, no glue/process issues. The board split through the Walnut and the field.

I pretty much disagree with your conclusion that this is not abuse. It's kinda the issue with endgrain boards in general. These things have always traditionally been used in environments where stuff (meat) is broken down on them day in and day out. Fat, oils, etc.. they oiled themselves. Finding a board floating in water, or laying on a countertop after being washed with one face siting in a shallow puddle of water is a death sentence for even a long grain board forget about a poorly/lightly/never oiled/waxed end grain board. There is just too much movement there.

Your answer is to charge a price for your end grain boards that is commensurate with the amount of work involved (like a starting price of $150 for a basic board). Then maybe with a customer paying the fair price for the board they will treat them better.

[Mel Fulks]

“compression ring -set”. Wood gets wet and swells, that compresses each block .So like fat people standing on a crowded bus each gets a
little smaller from the mass. The blocks swelled and ….crushed themselves!