Cutting Boards are the most important item for kitchen. It helps in cutting vegetables more quickly and easily. In this article, we will discuss about best wood for cutting boards.
As an example, I personally think Zebrawood looks incredible in both end grain and face grain cutting board construction, but leaves a little to be desired in edge grain boards (this of course depending on the milling orientation of the boards).
As a maker of custom cutting boards, by far the most popular wood for cutting boards in recent years has been American Black Walnut. You can see a great example in my How to Build an End Grain Cutting Board article. While solid Black Walnut boards are very appealing and popular, another great option is a Black Walnut board with some exotic species used as accent wood on the border of the butcher block.
Best Wood for Cutting Boards
Maple
Probably, Maple is the most common material in wooden cutting boards. Rated 1,450 lbf on the Janka test, a maple cutting board offers the ideal combination of surface hardness and kindness to your kitchen knives. The small pores in maple also prevent bacteria from growing on the surface.
On the downside, maple cutting boards are lighter in color than other woods, so stains are a bit more obvious… Other than that, they’re easy to clean and maintain.
Beech
Another standard option in the cutting board business, beech offers food safety, 1300 lbf hardness and a fair level of impact resistance (it also resists scratches, stains and moisture).
Beech is relatively affordable but it will require more maintenance and effort from you: because it shrinks easily, it needs conditioning every month; and, because it’s lighter in color, you will need to be extra careful with food stains.
What is the best wood for Cutting Boards?
Again, it depends! So much of selecting a species of wood to build a cutting board from is a personal preference that I would be doing you a disservice to recommend a single species. If it were up to me, I would have a board for every species and every combination of wood species! In conclusion, there is not a single best wood for a cutting board, rather an unlimited combination of beautiful wood species from which to make your one-of-a-kind cutting board from.
If I absolutely had to choose, my personal preferences would be the following:
- FACE GRAIN cutting board: Figured Walnut and Goncalo Alves combination
- EDGE GRAIN cutting board: Curly Maple, Ambrosia Maple, and Black Walnut combination
- END GRAIN cutting board: Black Walnut with Zebrawood accents
Conclusion
Choose the best wood for cutting boards, as per the guidelines given above. Stay safe! and work on your diet.
