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Wood For Butcher Block

B

boy&hisdogs

Joined
Dec 9, 2015
Messages
392
I have a set that I'm working on that need some sort of base or container for the items to be displayed on. An end grain cutting board looks nice, fits the knife-centric theme, and will be good to have around the house anyway.

I'm having a heck of a time finding wood for the project though. I was leaning towards maple, since I've always liked lighter colored butcher blocks and it will contrast nicley with my patina'd carbon steel, walnut handled knives.

The problem is that I have been to several hardware stores and lumber yards and nobody has what I need. I was hoping for 2x2s or similar, because I like the bigger squares, but the best I can find are 3/4" boards. I can order 2x2s online of course but I see a wide variety of prices. I'm planning on a roughtly 12" x 18" x 2" board and that will reqire about 10 feet of 2x2. The only thing I can find locally so far is 1.5x1.5 white oak but I don't think I should use such an open grained wood for a cutting board.

Do you guys have a good place for affordable hardwood lumber online or ideas for alternative woods? As long as it's light in color and suitable for cutting boards I'm happy.
 
In Canada, we have Windsor Plywood, who stock many domestic hardwoods in dimensional stock, as well as exotics in rough cut stock.

Woodcraft maybe? I'm not sure what's popular in your neck of the woods.
 
Maple, Walnut, Ash, oak, they all make great choices. If you check google for lumberyards near you, or even just go on craiglist it would be really, really easy to find wood.
 
People selling wood slabs on Craigslist would probably be able to give you 8/4 thickness. Realistically though, you probably want 10/4 because you'll need to 4-square it prior to glue up.
 
Get with Gilmer woods, or one of the others in Oregon. They have wood up to as thick as 4".
 
Why not just buy a maple end grain cutting board? They are fairly widely available online...some of the prices are not too bad, especially when you consider the time it takes to glue up all the pieces and then surface the block.
 
I've made a few of those, they are a lot more of a time consuming pain to make than you'd expect. If just for having one I'd buy it. If you want the fun of the project though, I'd use 8/4 eastern/rock maple
 
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