Quick cutting board question.

[John Miliunas]

My oldest daughter, now residing in sunny Florida, finally got an apartment of her own. Needless to say, she has little in the way of apartment "peripherals" and one of the items she's requesting is a cutting board. Well, the old man can whip one of these things up! I have some Walnut, BE Maple, regular Hard Maple, but also have a nice chunk of Lacewood. I figure that would add a nice (special) touch to the piece. Is Lacewood OK to use on something like a cutting board?

[John Weber]

John,

I think I would stick with hard maple for a "user". Walnut can be toxic, although we have a set of walnut "popcorn" bowls. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I know your not suppose to dispose of walnut sawdust in flower beds, etc... As for lacewood, my guess is it is to soft, I built a lacewood serving tray and seem to recall it was rather soft. If you wanted to do something "special", I would do a hard maple end grain cutting board. End grain is super, and you really don't see that many.

Jsut my $.02 - John

[John Miliunas]

Thanks John! Just the info I was looking for. Wasn't sure about the Lacewood and now you've answered that for me. I've found Walnut to be OK for cutting boards. Some folks have a hard time with the *dust* from it and yes, it is toxic to some animals (shouldn't use it for horse bedding and such). After scrounging around, I also remembered I had some Bloodwood, too. It's going to be a "user", but I know she likes stuff a bit more "interesting". I'll just see what I can come up with. Thanks again!

[Jim Becker]

Walnut usually is fine as an accent in cutting boards--many folks use it for that. It's toxicity is to certain animals (such as horses) and certain plants, although some humans are sensitive to it more than others. But it also has a relatively open grain which is less desirable for a cutting boards that are going to get used. Same for lacewood...open grain can make it harder to clean.

Maple is about the best choice for the majority of this project. IMHO.

[Tom Peterson]

John,
Now I know this is a wood working forum, but one year for Christmas, I got together some odds and ends of solid surface materials cut them to about 6" x 9" and routed an edge on them. Gave them out and got rave reviews. Lots of small ones are handy. We have five of them in our cabinet.

[John Miliunas]

Thanks guys. I've got some BE Maple looking for a home. It may as well be my daughter's new home! Nothing fancy or real heavy duty, as she's really not much of a cook, anyway. I think I'll use the BE for the main part and maybe a couple small stripes of Walnut or Bloodwood, just for highlights.

[Michael Ballent]

Why not use all the different scraps you have to make the cutting board. Plane all the pieces to same thickness and glue them up. Cross cut them and re-arrange them so that the end grain would show up like a butcher block, but with all sorts of colors squares from various squares. Not my idea, but a Dave Marks one... look pretty cool after it was done. You can see a pic below:

http://images.scrippsweb.com/DIY/200...k506_1ca_d.jpg

[Mark Angle]

I've been looking up on the same thing. Seems red oak is bad because of the open pores for bacteria. Also many sites come up with mineral oil as a good finish. Most of the retail products are nut oils that work great UNLESS you have someone allergic to nuts. We live in my great-grandfathers old house with 5 walnut trees. We were married in the yard under 2 of the English walnut trees and now my wife is VERY allergic to walnuts. Maybe she's trying to tell me something.

[Jim VanBramer]

Come on John ... could you atleast make it round so we can see pictures of something off that new lathe of yours??!!!

[John Miliunas]

Come on John ... could you atleast make it round so we can see pictures of something off that new lathe of yours??!!!

LOL! Strangely enough, I thought about making it round! Maybe the next one. I have, however, turned something "different" on the "new" lathe, but it's still work in progress. Lots of hand sanding and finishing left to be done on it. FT job and needs for the house are getting in the way of completing it, but I will get it done and post pics. The other effort I tried with it was with that spalted schtuff and turned out real crappy, so it's in the kindling wood pile. Fear not...I'll post pics as soon as I have something half-way worthy.