Best finish for a cutting board

[Cherryville Chuck]

The last issue of Fine Woodworking had an article about cutting board finishes written by Seri Robinson, a professor of wood anatomy at Oregon Sate U. And the best finish is-......nothing. The antimicrobial action of wood works best in it's natural state. The woods she recommends are maple, birch, ash, oak (white or red), beech, poplar, aspen, and sycamore. Woods she doesn't recommend are tropical hardwoods, especially strongly colored ones. The pigments and chemicals that give those colors and make those woods decay resistant are usually toxic. Woods like bloodwood and purpleheart.

[HandyDan]

Great. I've made all mine With Cherry. I am surprised she recommended Ash and Oak. I rub mine down with mineral oil because the sometimes have that dried out look and the oil makes them look better.

[DaninVan]

Absolutely! She might be a brilliant academic but she knows diddly squat about woodworking, and the beauty of wood oiled with mineral oil and beeswax, buffed.

[Cherryville Chuck]

The wood looks nicer with an oil finish but it is no longer anti microbial. To make sure they are sanitary, especially after cutting meat on them they should be wiped down with bleach water.

According to her, when you wipe an unfinished board down with just plain water the board sucks some of the water and the bacteria down into the wood where the water then dries back out of the wood cells and leaves the bacteria behind where they die due to lack of oxygen and nutrients to feed them. That's why the porosity of the oak doesn't matter. I always thought oak was better because of the tannin in it but apparently that isn't what matters.

[DaninVan]

The wood looks nicer with an oil finish but it is no longer anti microbial. To make sure they are sanitary, especially after cutting meat on them they should be wiped down with bleach water.

According to her, when you wipe an unfinished board down with just plain water the board sucks some of the water and the bacteria down into the wood where the water then dries back out of the wood cells and leaves the bacteria behind where they die due to lack of oxygen and nutrients to feed them. That's why the porosity of the oak doesn't matter. I always thought oak was better because of the tannin in it but apparently that isn't what matters.

Beeswax is anti-bacterial.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 4516301407

[Stick486]

Absolutely! She might be a brilliant academic but she knows diddly squat about woodworking, and the beauty of wood oiled with mineral oil and beeswax, buffed.

Add ash and red oak to her not knowing her woods...
As porous as they are, that makes them major collectors of food p[articles and juices...
Maple, AFAIK, is the only acceptable wood for cutting boards and blocks...

[Cherryville Chuck]

Add ash and red oak to her not knowing her woods...
As porous as they are, that makes them major collectors of food p[articles and juices...
Maple, AFAIK, is the only acceptable wood for cutting boards and blocks...

Red oak was singled out in the article as being just fine according to how wood is microbial in action. Since it was singled out I'm assuming that tests were done to confirm this.(As a university professor this a great job to give your students. They get the benefit of learning lab work and the teacher gets the data without actually doing any work.) I personally always thought it was in the tannin in the wood, which is high in oaks but almost non existent in whiter woods like maple and birch. According to her the bacteria get drawn into the wood lattice of cells and die from lack of oxygen and nutrients when you wet wipe the boards.

One wood I think not mentioned which I know gets used a lot for cutting boards down at the coast where Dan is is alder.
https://www.naturallywood.com/species/r ... 20products.

[DaninVan]

Somehow the idea of roast beef juice being absorbed into my cutting board, over and over again, may well put me off red meat...
Alder isn't all that cheap anymore;
https://www.westwindhardwood.com/produc ... ods/alder/
https://www.westwindhardwood.com/produc ... h-western/

I posted the price for Birch as a price comparison only, although I love working with Western Birch.

[Stick486]

Somehow the idea of roast beef juice being absorbed into my cutting board, over and over again, may well put me off red meat... ;)
Alder isn't all that cheap anymore;
https://www.westwindhardwood.com/produc ... ods/alder/
https://www.westwindhardwood.com/produc ... h-western/

I posted the price for Birch as a price comparison only, although I love working with Western Birch.

Think about how porous Red Oak is and add the juice from anything....

[Cherryville Chuck]

Somehow the idea of roast beef juice being absorbed into my cutting board, over and over again, may well put me off red meat...
Alder isn't all that cheap anymore;
https://www.westwindhardwood.com/produc ... ods/alder/
https://www.westwindhardwood.com/produc ... h-western/

I posted the price for Birch as a price comparison only, although I love working with Western Birch.

I logged a bunch of birch years ago in one of the areas where it did well here and took it to a neighbor with a mill and had him saw it for me. It's almost all gone. It's only available from the smaller mills and not usually a regular product. It is decent to work with but chips out in the planer so I often use the drum sander to get the side that shows ready.

[Cherryville Chuck]

Somehow the idea of roast beef juice being absorbed into my cutting board, over and over again, may well put me off red meat...
Alder isn't all that cheap anymore;
https://www.westwindhardwood.com/produc ... ods/alder/
https://www.westwindhardwood.com/produc ... h-western/

I posted the price for Birch as a price comparison only, although I love working with Western Birch.

Think about how porous Red Oak is and add the juice from anything....

I wouldn't make an end grain board out of it.

[Stick486]

I wouldn't make an end grain board out of it.

People do all the time,,,
Planing and sanding opes the face to the veins..