Cherry in a Cutting Board

[Keith Starosta]

I've got a few cutting boards I need to make, and was thinking about incorporating some cherry into this batch. As I was tinkering with the stock, I started feeling like this wood might be too "soft" to use in a piece that will take many knife swipes. So, my question to you folks, is cherry a hard enough wood to use in a cutting board?

Thanks!

Keith

[Dewey Torres]

Yes it is hard enough but it will last longer (as with any cutting board wood) if the grain is oriented vertical vs flat.
Dewey

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Dunno why not. It's a common choice for flooring. It may not be as hard as some maple or hickory but it's plenty hard.

[Matt Meiser]

I used it in a few cutting boards I made and its holding up fine.

[Lee Koepke]

my first cutting board was cherry and maple. mind you its only been in use a couple of weeks, but i dont anticipate any issues. its beautiful wood too ... and i dont know that you would want something SO hard that it damages the knives .. but thats a different discussion....

[J. Z. Guest]

There are two schools of thought on cutting boards:

1) Use a super durable material, and it will last forever

2) Use a softer material or end grain, and you won't have to sharpen your knives as much.

I wouldn't hesitate to use Cherry. End grain is easier on your knife edges, but cutting boards are by nature sacrificial. If they last too long, it means they're not being used, and that is a sin.

[Tim Johnson]

I have used cherry, maple, locust, and walnut in cutting boards. I make them a little over 3/4 inch thick. A few that I use almost everyday will get pretty ragged over the years, so I simply run them through the planer ( only the ones with edge grain, not end grain) to clean them up, recoat with salad bowl finish and they look like new. It doesn't take much to take the cut marks out. I've even taken cheap ones from the store that have become delaminated along the glue lines. cut them apart on the bandsaw, reglued them, planed and refinished them to make a "new" cutting board.

[Mike McCann]

Keith

here is a link to the janka hardness scale. American cherry is pretty low on the scale.


http://www.countyfloors.com/about_janka.html

[mreza Salav]

I have made two (end-grain) cutting boards using Maple/Cherry/Walnut. After about one year in use, still looks great.

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[Matt Martyn]

I have made two (end-grain) cutting boards using Maple/Cherry/Walnut. After about one year in use, still looks great.

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Sorry I dont mean to hijack the thread, but those cutting boards look great! How did you come up with the pattern? Did you have to have to glue up multiple boards and mix and match between them to get that arangement? I see like half a dozen different patterns in there. Hope you know what I mean. Thanks.

[Peter Quinn]

For use at home I would think cherry would be a fine choice. For a commercial work surface used daily I think cherry is a poor choice. As a former professional chef I can tell you that my razor sharp high carbon chefs knifes are going to damage any wooden surface upon which they are used eventually, be they end grain or edge grain. Wooden cutting boards require maintenance over their life time, and in that respect cherry should be easier to sand or plane when the time comes than a harder wood.

As far as cherry's hardness? I worked in a flooring mill for a while, and the sales office floor had samples of each species we made. A petit women in very thin stiletto heels walked into the office, across the white oak, the walnut, the jatoba, the bubinga, the birch, the maple etc and then stood on the cherry in front of the sales managers desk and had a conversation with him. After she left it was realized that her heels had left nearly 1/16" imprints in the cherry every where she stepped but not on any other species! Cherry is a very pretty surface but not so good at resisting sharp impacts.

None of the various men in work boots that had walked over that floor for years had ever damaged it. So remember not to dance on your cherry cutting board in heels!

[mreza Salav]

Sorry I dont mean to hijack the thread, but those cutting boards look great! How did you come up with the pattern? Did you have to have to glue up multiple boards and mix and match between them to get that arangement? I see like half a dozen different patterns in there. Hope you know what I mean. Thanks.

Just row by row (piece by piece), 3 or 4 rows at a time clamped and then the next set. Both patterns were by my wife.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

I have done dozens with cherry as a component. No problems at all.