Chopping board recommendations

[Mr Tree]

It would be an interesting project to make a butcher's block. I wonder if the steel bands would need to be heated like a wheelwright would do when adding the tyre.

I got some air dried 7 year old beech if you want?

 

[Freeforester]

Funky "Kitchen Islands" in need of some rustic charm are the enemy of those looking for a reasonably priced butchers chopping block.

Cleaned up and no doubt slavered in pine wax, they sit forlornly opposite the AGA Rangemaster with a bowl of fruit held snugly within the once blood-hungry and chopper clawed hollow.

How do I know?

K

Mr K, how very dare you - it’s a Rangemaster!

 

[Mr Tree]

Mr K, how very dare you - it’s a Rangemaster!View attachment 445056

A very neat Kitchen Sir, mine has become an overspill from the farm workshop. Miss Tree would be so pleased if her kitchen looked like this one.

 

[Bo Diddley]

I got some air dried 7 year old beech if you want?

Thanks, Mr Tree, if you're giving it away I could make good use of it ..

Seriously, I'm a joiner and think I could muster up enough bits in the workshop.
I was thinking of a proper job, all the strips banded together, so you chop on the end grain, it's a bit tricky, I'm thinking glue them up in strips then put them through the planner again to flatten off, all the angles need to be perfectly 90degrees, a little bit out and over a dozen or more pieces would throw it out a country mile.
Something like this would be quite easy.

£295 on Ebay.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Old butchers blocks were made from multiple blocks of beech or oak with the end grain on the chopping surface. The whole pulled together with a metal. Cleanup the face with a scraper- either a rectangular piece of steel or an an older knife from time to time.

I have a couple of off cuts 1 inch thick oak kitchen work top that I use for all my cutting purposes.

I was at General Motors Tech centre Detroit in 1983-5 and the lowest floor was a huge expanse of machines from huge lathes miller grinders etc as far as the eye could see and the whole floor was made of 4 by 4 wood blocks with the end grain up, it may have been maple as it was the USA.

 

[Freeforester]

A very neat Kitchen Sir, mine has become an overspill from the farm workshop. Miss Tree would be so pleased if her kitchen looked like this one.

That might be a miss-tree to me.

 

[Mr Tree]

That might be a miss-tree to me.

Yes she is a strange one. Tattood all over, I found her crouched behind an old crab boat, she looked like she had been washed up in the tide, seaweed in her hair. She growled at me & tried to bite me, & I knew right then it was love at first bite. Damnit, the girl can graloch a red stag with a piece of flint in seconds. She cant cook, just as well, she prefers raw meat. Damn good shot too. So yes, a fine addition to the farm.

 

[Mr Tree]

Old butchers blocks were made from multiple blocks of beech or oak with the end grain on the chopping surface. The whole pulled together with a metal. Cleanup the face with a scraper- either a rectangular piece of steel or an an older knife from time to time.

I have a couple of off cuts 1 inch thick oak kitchen work top that I use for all my cutting purposes.

Is there a reason for using end grain up, cosmetic or strength. Thanks.

 

[VSS]

Is there a reason for using end grain up, cosmetic or strength. Thanks.

Because that way it doesn't shed splinters as a result of cutting and chopping on it.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Is there a reason for using end grain up, cosmetic or strength. Thanks.

Self-healing when clamped/bound within the block border. The alternative would see splitting and splinters when subject to chopping.

K

 

[Mr Tree]

Self-healing when clamped/bound within the block border. The alternative would see splitting and splinters when subject to chopping.

K

Isn't it true that beech wood is probably the least likely to splinter?

 

[Klenchblaize]

Isn't it true that beech wood is probably the least likely to splinter?

No idea but will consult my tree/wood bible.

K

 

[John Gryphon]

Old butchers blocks were made from multiple blocks of beech or oak with the end grain on the chopping surface

And second hand they are snapped up quickly. Then legs shortened and the top planed flat and used as a coffee table etc.

 

[norsk]

Isn't it true that beech wood is probably the least likely to splinter?

Chestnut is the least likely, Beech is up there too though.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Just had a thought: Why is the Beech tree known as the "Widow Maker"? Something to do with its tendency to let go (splinter) in a catastrophic manner if I recall correctly.

K

 

[Bo Diddley]

If I remember correctly, it was something to do with the dust produced in the chair-making factories... breathe enough in and die a little earlier.

P.S., I could always be wrong

 

[Freeforester]

Just had a thought: Why is the Beech tree known as the "Widow Maker"? Something to do with its tendency to let go (splinter) in a catastrophic manner if I recall correctly.

K

When the sap rises, they can certainly break in a decent wind, and being dense, a bough falling from height serves to firmly emphasise Newton’s observations concerning the concerning potential gravity which gravity can potentially and potently pose…

Frost may also have a hand in such a downfall.

 

[norsk]

Just had a thought: Why is the Beech tree known as the "Widow Maker"? Something to do with its tendency to let go (splinter) in a catastrophic manner if I recall correctly.

K

I have never heard Beech called that before?
It can be a bit finicky under tension if you are felling it,no worse than Ash for example. Before chainsaws or the understanding of how to deal with tension in a trunk using the appropriate felling techniques I think some timbers gained an undeserved reputation for danger.

 

[sh1kar]

I have 3 of these I have had for 15 years and still going strong. Just bung them in the dishwasher when finished. BUT I doubt they would put up with a cleaver

Epicurean Chopping Prep Board, 20cm, Natural

www.johnlewis.com

 

[sh1kar]

and....