End grain cutting board 3rd version added

[Crazyraceguy]

I had some off-cuts leftover from the waterfall-leg countertop. The receptionist at work asked me if I could make her a photo platform for her cake decorating business form some of it. It was a simple 13" diameter disk, with the name engraved on the front, which is why I didn't post any pics of it.
Her husband immediately saw it as a cutting board...she shut that down immediately [smile] but told him that she might be able to make that happen, because she "knows a guy"  [big grin]
I steered her toward end grain and this is the result.
It never fails, make a cutting board and everybody wants one.
Several years ago, I made quite a few and almost none of them ever got used? Seems like people love them, look at then like some kind of art piece, and won't cut on them.

 

[rvieceli]

Very nicely done. Looks great.

Ron

 

[Packard]

I’ve always admired the end-grain look. 

My first job in 1970 was in the South Bronx, and the factory floor was done in end-grain.  It greatly absorbed vibration and was incredibly tough.

Caswell still offers it, though I have not seen another example of it since 1970.

Nice looking cutting board that will doubtless outlast face grain versions by about 40 years.

In case you decide to go “all end grain”, here is Kaswell’s site.
https://www.kaswell.com/end-grain

 

[Crazyraceguy]

It may not show so well in that pic, but it is what I would call "pretty thin". That what she wanted, so it's only 7/8" thick.  I oiled it this morning and when I turned it over, to do the other side, it was already coming through. It has hand-hold cut outs in the sides, the help with lifting.
I'm a little concerned that it may bow, warp, or somehow react to being washed, because of that thinness.
Thank you BTW.  [unsure] should have started with that.

 

[FestitaMakool]

No wonder.. if end grain cutting board are becoming less available with you too..
here the prices quickly become lightly astronomical for decent end-grain boards.
I’m sure this also has to do with shipping costs, weight flies sky high with these on comparison to plank boards.

Most who has even the slightest interest in their knives know that end-grain boards are so much kinder to the knife edge, and sharpening is not the favourite for most, but everyone likes a long lived sharp knife. End grain supposedly has better natural self cleaning characteristics too.

Looks very good CRG! Like the “natural” look - not that fond of all kinds of weird patterns myself.

 

[rmwarren]

That wood is a great look, very nice.

For some forgotten reason I purchased a box of ~200 LF of 3/4" by 2" precut cherry cabinet stiles years ago from Industrial Plywood. Been moving them around ever since while trying to devise a project to use them up, & think I've settled on end grain cutting boards.

I'm going to experiment with a glue-up of 2 strips into an "L" then whack them into chunks a couple inches long and lay up a Herringbone pattern, like this:

[attachimg=1]

With any luck I can use it all up, anything left over goes in the smoking wood pile.

CRG, did you just use Titebond for the glue up?

RMW

 

[Crazyraceguy]

If that's what people want, I don't mind filling that niche. It's just that I can do so much more.
I have never charged anyone for them. It has always been for family, friends, and such.
I have no idea what they cost? It doesn't surprise me that they have gone up though, everything else has...

Yes [member=8712]Richard/RMW[/member]

 

[smorgasbord]

Here's a Canadian company selling end grain cutting boards with sequential grain matching:https://www.larchwoodcanada.com/shop/product-category/round-boards/
[attachimg=1]

 

[Crazyraceguy]

[member=77266]smorgasbord[/member] that's pretty cool looking, except for that piece with the pith in it. Not only does it seem "out of sequence" it is simply not stable. That is the worst part of the tree.
I assume that the company name indicates the species too? Larch is in the SPF range, not my favorite to work with, but the strong grain lines really add to the vibrancy of the piece.

 

[Cheese]

FWIW...end grain oak blocks were used for years as a street surface because of their durability/long life. They were able to endure years of horse hooves and steel/wood wagon wheels. At some time, the streets eventually needed to be resurfaced and at that point in time, it was found that a quick coating of asphalt would take care of business.  [smile]

There are literally hundreds of streets and alleys in the Twin Cities that have an oak end grain block base with an asphalt top coat.

The bottom line is, if it's good enough for hooves...it's good enough for knives.  [smile]

However, over the years, I have not found a significant (any) difference between edge grain and end grain cutting boards. Unless you're a professional chef prepping food 50 hours per week, end grain doesn't offer any advantages other than it's prettier.

 

[luvmytoolz]

However, over the years, I have not found a significant (any) difference between edge grain and end grain cutting boards. Unless you're a professional chef prepping food 50 hours per week, end grain doesn't offer any advantages other than it's prettier.

I thought it was shown conclusively that end grain has better cell recovery and resistance to bacteria than side grain?

 

[Cheese]

I thought it was shown conclusively that end grain has better cell recovery and resistance to bacteria than side grain?

You're correct, I was talking from a knife edge dulling context, I've noticed no difference.

 

[PaulMarcel]

Love the board! It's something I want to make for myself.

For her presentation board, how did you do the engraving? Simple engraving bit or something like a Corian inlay? I think you did something like that once.

I'd love to see some end-grain flooring like that. Don't recall ever seeing any and I think I'd notice.

I bought a TidyBoard because I wanted wood after years of plastic; it has a cool lever/handle that flips out and lets you put prep bowls and colanders at board level right next to the board. Very nice idea, but only in face-grain. When I get some nice wood for an end-grain board, I'll make it the same size with the same recesses to move the hardware over.

 

[Cheese]

I'd love to see some end-grain flooring like that. Don't recall ever seeing any and I think I'd notice.

I've seen end-grain bamboo flooring installed in a rental unit because of its durability. It really grabs your attention because of the look.

 

[PaulMarcel]

I've seen end-grain bamboo flooring installed in a rental unit because of its durability. It really grabs your attention because of the look.

I've never seen it in person, but saw a lot of photos online when I wanted flooring for my second floor ages ago. Both cuts were beautiful.

Turned out, Home Depot sold a few lines of it so I thought to get some samples just to see how it would look. None of the stores here carry it. Asking questions, they will sell it to you online, but they don't want it in the Arizona stores because it had problems with the dryness here. The guy said they would get so many upset customers a couple years after install when it would be delaminating and cracking. That sounds like a manufacturing issue, but it turned me off of trying it.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I've seen end-grain bamboo flooring installed in a rental unit because of its durability. It really grabs your attention because of the look.

I've never seen it in person, but saw a lot of photos online when I wanted flooring for my second floor ages ago. Both cuts were beautiful.

Turned out, Home Depot sold a few lines of it so I thought to get some samples just to see how it would look. None of the stores here carry it. Asking questions, they will sell it to you online, but they don't want it in the Arizona stores because it had problems with the dryness here. The guy said they would get so many upset customers a couple years after install when it would be delaminating and cracking. That sounds like a manufacturing issue, but it turned me off of trying it.

I'm always a bit wary of the laminated timber panels our timber stores sell for furniture and benchtops, I've seen numerous times advertised on the forums after they've started opening up and splitting. And on occasion when I've been in Bunnings (OZ's main building supplier chain) you can sometimes see the boards in the racks coming apart. I definitely wouldn't trust it in flooring.

 

[Rutabagared]

It looks great.  End grain boards are a surprising amount of work, especially smoothing the surfaces.

 

[Leemstradamus]

Great looking board, I've been a little intimidated trying to build an end grain board. My process is so slow for edge grain already. I'll get one board done in a few months lol!

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I'd love to see some end-grain flooring like that. Don't recall ever seeing any and I think I'd notice.

I've seen end-grain bamboo flooring installed in a rental unit because of its durability. It really grabs your attention because of the look.

I have never seen Bamboo as end-grain? You would think it would suck up everything like a sponge?
Bamboo plywood, yes, it's pretty cool stuff. It's hard and hard on tools, but looks great.

Love the board! It's something I want to make for myself.

For her presentation board, how did you do the engraving? Simple engraving bit or something like a Corian inlay? I think you did something like that once.

This was a rather unique project, in that it looks like a cutting board, but will never get cut. This allowed for some freedom of the infill material, since I didn't have to worry about it getting cut into or scratched.
What I ended up using was some "universal tint" goo, that we have laying around. This stuff is pretty thick, kind of like toothpaste, but I did seal the engraving with some water-based polycrylic first.
I mixed brown with white and had to add a little yellow to cut down on the grayish hue it produced. The point was to look like chocolate.

I have done Corian, both as solid pieces and just with the adhesive itself.

One of these days, I'm going to test that tint stuff mixed into regular autobody filler. It won't fly with cutting boards, but hopefully fill larger areas easier?

It looks great.  End grain boards are a surprising amount of work, especially smoothing the surfaces.

Thank you. This one wasn't too bad. I had some off-cuts from another project, so it was really just one glue-up of edge-grain parts, then cross-cutting the strips from that. I paid very close attention to getting that second glue-up as close as possible, to keep flattening to a minimum.
Though I do have a router sled to make that happen, it's quite messy. This was close enough for a minimal application of violence from the RAS115 and final clean-up flattening with an 8" orbital sander.

O hope it maintains its flatness, because it's so thin, but it was right once anyway.

 

[PaulMarcel]

This was close enough for a minimal application of violence from the RAS115

Now that's funny