Chopping board wood

[Jeremy Nako]

I've been making various designs of chopping boards for some time now using the staple of Maple, Walnut and Cherry woods.

I've been looking around for something different and come across Black Palmira, amongst others.

The question is .. what makes a species of wood good for chopping boards ?

Looking purely at the hardness scale, Black Palmira rates at overr 2,000 on the Janka scale which is double that of Maple for example.

Is that a suitable criteria ?

If its not the only criteria, what else should I consider when looking at non mainstream woods for chopping hoards ?

 

[MARK.B.]

Some wood species are toxic

 

[TheTiddles]

Closed grain most of all
Stable is highly useful
Dense is nice
Hardness, not sure why that’s important

 

[thetyreman]

don't use toxic woods, stick to sycamore and beech, keep it simple.

 

[--Tom--]

As above, closed grain and tight pores. Very hard woods are no good for knife edges, and very soft wears too quickly, hence maple, beech, sycamore being ideal. I seem to remember palmira having quite large pores and being a bit splintery, but may be mixing up my memories

 

[sawtooth-9]

As above, closed grain and tight pores. Very hard woods are no good for knife edges, and very soft wears too quickly, hence maple, beech, sycamore being ideal. I seem to remember palmira having quite large pores and being a bit splintery, but may be mixing up my memories

I've been making various designs of chopping boards for some time now using the staple of Maple, Walnut and Cherry woods.

I've been looking around for something different and come across Black Palmira, amongst others.

The question is .. what makes a species of wood good for chopping boards ?

Looking purely at the hardness scale, Black Palmira rates at overr 2,000 on the Janka scale which is double that of Maple for example.

Is that a suitable criteria ?

If its not the only criteria, what else should I consider when looking at non mainstream woods for chopping hoards ?

Are you cutting or chopping ?
For cutting, choose a timber not too hard.
For chopping, choose a hardwood but have the grain vertical - like butchers blocks.
It's good to run a little olive oil into the end grain of chopping boards.

 

[thetyreman]

walnut, cherry, pear and maple would all be fine as well, just that sycamore and beech is cheaper. My beech chopping board also 'heals' itself when you wash it, I used quartersawn beech so it's pretty much going into end grain, even after a couple of years fairly heavy use you can barely see the knife marks, best chopping board I've ever used or owned, you could make the size bigger or smaller depending on your needs.

 

[--Tom--]

General rule of thumb is trees that produce edible fruit or nuts