suggestions for turning chunk of wood into a cutting board

getridone

BANNED
Joined
Dec 5, 2011
Messages
320
So a local guy with a saw mill had this slab laying around that had come off a 200 year old maple, little soft I guess because of the spalting, probably better on the knives though...I got it for free and really want to turn it into a cutting board. One side is flat because of the saw, other side was the outside of the tree. I'd like to figure out a good way to get this to sit right on my counter top. Right now it's about 3x2 ft...Should I even bother with this...


6844191194_61ce350cdc_z.jpg

6844192738_07c865c073_z.jpg

6844194062_0e9d088582_z.jpg
 
You could take it to a mill and have a nice flat section cut off or have it cut into strips then glue the strips together, plane, sand and use.
 
Some random thoughts/questions:

If it's really soft....don't use it. Food will likely contaminate the soft spots (liquids/blood/etc. soaking into those areas) and make bad mojo. I've seen spalted maple I could dig at with my fingernails and would never use anything that soft for a cutting board. Maple is a great cutting board material partially because of it's closed grain structure which prevents alot of that penetration.

If it's still "green", don't do anything until it's been properly dried.....a year maybe?!?! Less if stored in really dry location or if it's not very thick...hard to tell in the pics.

Spalting is supposedly bad for you....although I don't know how much and if it really matters all that much. Some board makers refuse to use spalted woods for this reason alone.

Depending on how thick it is, how green it is, and how thick you plan to leave it....I would not really recommend using one piece as a cutting board. Cutting boards are made up of pieces for a reason...it's more stable. A really thick piece would work better...think of those Chinese tree trunk blocks.....but they still often times crack.

It looks like a beautiful board, and I'd love to see this get made into a big arse cutting board...so I would hate to see you make something and have it warp, crack, etc. beyond useage when a little extra work/thought now could make it into something your grandchildren could use.
 
Just to add to watercrawl's post - spalting is caused by a fungus. Aside from making the wood soft and more porous (bad for cutting boards) it is potentially toxic - there have been cases of woodworkers developing respiratory problems from working with spalted woods without a respirator.
 
Back
Top