Cutting Boards

[John Brown]

Are there any woods that should not be used to make cutting boards for preparing food on

I've some off-cuts that would make nice chopping boards etc but I'm not sure if they are suitable

John

[ericd]

Chesnut if young, will likely turn black in contact with water or vegetable juices. Any other wood is ok (after all, it's France and not the deepest part of the rain forest....).

Just scrub well with white vinegar every so often.

[Théière]

Chipboard [:)]

[Chancer]

Good job that my worktops are hêtre then!

I recently routed a pocket in the bottom of a counter top for a french friend who has just paid a kings ransom for a trendy white gloss supply only kitchen from someone like Schmitt or Cuisinella, the initial 3mm of chipboard was dense as hell and really played havoc wih the cutter but after that it was as soft as s**te and you could remove the material with your fingernails, the only thing holding it together was the green dye making a pretense that it was hydrofuge.

He proudly showed me the "invisible" join between the corner worktops that had to be sent all the way to the usine in Germany to be done "yeah right!", I showed him my worktop template, cutters and dog-bone fixings (it was them that convinced him) and told him that any half serious UK artisan would be thus equipped and that he would then have the correct angle between the worktops to match his walls which were out of square.

[Salty Sam]

Getting back to the OP's original question.

I made some a few years back as gifts, and posed the same question on another forum. The best results come from using any close grained wood - or so I was told at the time!

Since then I've made them from softwoods including pine offcuts, once completed applying copious amounts of Brandon Bespoke Chopping Board & Butcher's Block Lotion to seal the wood.

[John Brown]

Thanks for the comments

I wanted to make sure I didn't poison anyone or impart any horrid tastes in the food

John

[Jonzjob]

There are several woods that you don't use for food type impliments. One that comes to mind is yew, 'if' in French.

Here is a toxicity list for woods that you may find interesting?

http://www.orchard-woodturners.org.uk/wood2.htm