Any Butchers About - End Grain Boards

Gidday, I'm getting a large end grain chopping board done for our kitchen island as I enjoy doing all our own butchery. I've currently got a Black Maire side grain board but it's so hard on gear, way too hard a timber, for side grain anyway.

The guy whose making it has two types available, Totara/Mountain beech combo or Straight Walnut. Any ideas what the better timber would be for this type of board? Dimensions will be 400 x 600 x 40. If that makes any difference.

Any help would be great.

Cheers

Scott

totara splits really easily.... maire sure is hard....would be good on end grain maybe....ive got a couple of oak side grain ones that are lasting well.as is the wattle one...

That Black Maire is a great timber. I once saw an end off cut from an old telephone pole cross bar, it was a trial run of Black Maire and had the wee brass plate with date and trial etc ...very cool little paper weight.

Any timber board will be more sterile than either glass or plastic. Totara contains a natural antiseptic but is a very soft timber and will mark very quickly. Eucalyptus makes a good board.

white pine/kihikatea is ideal as it has no scent.....why it was used for butterboxes I believe....not sure how it will stand up to chopping.

Ditto what Micky Duck mentioned above, especially on end grain.However the tried & true std is an end grain Kauri.Every dinkum corner butcher had one. Probably have to put your hand deep in your pocket if you can source one

Could be wrong but I read somewhere ''Black Maire'' is the hardest of our NZ hardwoods with Rata a close second.

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Originally Posted by ghosts

Could be wrong but I read somewhere ''Black Maire'' is the hardest of our NZ hardwoods with Rata a close second.

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Black maire second in density to Southern rata. Maire more stable, so better suited to furniture and flooring, if you can find the stuff.

Did a bit of reading and sounds like walnut is the way to go, best to stick with one type of timber as minimises chances of it moving once glued up.

This is the Maire one I have at the moment, beautiful bit of wood but like cutting on marble, not ideal.
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Interesting thread.
Cant say I have ever considered the block in a causing knife wear fashion im more concerned with damaging the block.
But then the only block I have used regularly is basically just a flitch of native not a manufactured "block"

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Interesting thread.
Cant say I have ever considered the block in a causing knife wear fashion im more concerned with damaging the block.
But then the only block I have used regularly is basically just a flitch of native not a manufactured "block"

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Most of the time not an issue, but with these hardwoods it's next level hard. The block pictured is close to 10 kg and it's only 40mm thick. I never used to worry because I was using cheaper, easy to sharpen knives. Now I've got a couple nice Japanese and German ones, because I enjoy cooking a lot, I want to look after them a bit......and the end grain boards do look pretty cool, not going to lie.

We have a Australian marri chopping board it's hard on soft steel knives.

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Originally Posted by nor-west

We have a Australian marri chopping board it's hard on soft steel knives.

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Yea and I've heard with the very hard Japanese knives, prone to chipping them.

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Originally Posted by McNotty

Yea and I've heard with the very hard Japanese knives, prone to chipping them.

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Yep, Japanese knives hold a bloody good edge but hide them from visitors and your better 1/2's as they do chip easily if you try and use them in a way that was not intended by the maker!!!!

Mine are hidden

I make end grain boards but don’t really use any NZ timbers. I really like the look of white oak.The walnut we get here is no where near as nice as the USA stuff. But the middle board is un oiled walnut and oak if you wanted to see what it looked like. Bottom board is oak, walnut, jarrah and some Purple Heart I think. I have yet to go and get some Padauk that stuff looks amazing.
Top board is all oak with a @Ripi ;knife.

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Originally Posted by Ranal

I make end grain boards but don’t really use any NZ timbers. I really like the look of white oak.The walnut we get here is no where near as nice as the USA stuff. But the middle board is un oiled walnut and oak if you wanted to see what it looked like. Bottom board is oak, walnut, jarrah and some Purple Heart I think. I have yet to go and get some Padauk that stuff looks amazing.
Top board is all oak with a @Ripi ;knife.

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Thanks for that man, your boards look bloody nice! Do you sell any?

If you intent to fix the board in place I would suggest using a wire brush to clean after use,as soap and water will be soaked into the wood and may contaminate the surface....if you can remove it to cleanand DRY it then disregard this.

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Originally Posted by Bullers243

If you intent to fix the board in place I would suggest using a wire brush to clean after use,as soap and water will be soaked into the wood and may contaminate the surface....if you can remove it to cleanand DRY it then disregard this.

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Cheers for the info, won't be fixed at this stage but could be in the future if we redo kitchen.

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Originally Posted by McNotty

Thanks for that man, your boards look bloody nice! Do you sell any?

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Yeah I do sell them but haven’t really found lots of buyers. The timber alone can be quite expensive and a lot people aren’t overly interested in paying $$ would rather only spend $10 at Kmart. I made a batch of 6 mixed boards and I think the timber set me back $400 odd. So each board ended up like $250+
I mainly make them for good friends at barely cost price or for wedding presents etc.
I have about 6 more to make once lock down ends. I try and save them up to do at once as the time to do 6 isn’t 6x doing 1.


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Originally Posted by Ranal

Yeah I do sell them but haven’t really found lots of buyers. The timber alone can be quite expensive and a lot people aren’t overly interested in paying $$ would rather only spend $10 at Kmart. I made a batch of 6 mixed boards and I think the timber set me back $400 odd. So each board ended up like $250+
I mainly make them for good friends at barely cost price or for wedding presents etc.
I have about 6 more to make once lock down ends. I try and save them up to do at once as the time to do 6 isn’t 6x doing 1.


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What kind of sizes do you do? I'm happy paying decent money as I know the time that goes into them. What kind of money are you talking for like a 500 x 400 x 50 mm board?

black maire is awesome firewood....it burns out fireboxes really quickly...if you are trying to split it with axe you HAVE to hit it directly with the grain or directly against the grain or your razor sharp axe swung with all you heart n soul put into it will simply bounce back up...trust me on this Ive split truck loads of it.....when it splits its a little like fibreglass,and splinters feaster like stink....and yes it is plurry heavy.
rewarewa is nearly as hard when dry,its got beautiful honeycomb grain to it.

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

black maire is awesome firewood....it burns out fireboxes really quickly...if you are trying to split it with axe you HAVE to hit it directly with the grain or directly against the grain or your razor sharp axe swung with all you heart n soul put into it will simply bounce back up...trust me on this Ive split truck loads of it.....when it splits its a little like fibreglass,and splinters feaster like stink....and yes it is plurry heavy.
rewarewa is nearly as hard when dry,its got beautiful honeycomb grain to it.

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I know what you mean, we used to have a fire box in the hut up the back of Taihape that was made from two kents welded together. The bush had been milled years ago but a heap of old stumps still around. That old wood used to make it glow red, that area was one of the coldest I've ever been in winter.

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Originally Posted by McNotty

What kind of sizes do you do? I'm happy paying decent money as I know the time that goes into them. What kind of money are you talking for like a 500 x 400 x 50 mm board?

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I can let you know once I can get back into the timber yard again. I have 6 to do currently so would be a bit cheaper and would depend on what wood you wanted. Most of them I make are around A3 size and are approx $300 give or take.


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Walnut board finished. Bloody wrapped with it.

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

white pine/kihikatea is ideal as it has no scent.....why it was used for butterboxes I believe....not sure how it will stand up to chopping.

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It's pretty soft wood and is about as "splitty" as macro in my experience. I wouldn't choose it for a chopping board

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Originally Posted by 6x47

It's pretty soft wood and is about as "splitty" as macro in my experience. I wouldn't choose it for a chopping board

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Yes, they used it for butter boxes because it is lightweight, and not very dense, so easy to nail together fast. Not ideal for a high wear use like a chopping board


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Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Any timber board will be more sterile than either glass or plastic. Totara contains a natural antiseptic but is a very soft timber and will mark very quickly. Eucalyptus makes a good board.

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Yes back in the day I was a chef, had three restaurants over the years - Auckland City Council Health inspectors, made us bin the wooden chopping boards and move to white plastic, which had to be soaked in Janola to clean them - needless to say they smelt like swimming pool chlorine, but the Health inspector would shut down the restaurant, if we didn't comply.

The some bright spark to whom I'm eternally grateful, from the University discovered that properly cleaned wood boards did indeed have an antiseptic quality, (it's inside the cells of the wood, very natural) and we went back to the "old" ways.

Mind you, I always disagreed with the health inspectors on matters of science, had to trespass one once.

What about sap kauri as a more cutting than chopping board...?


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Originally Posted by McNotty

Walnut board finished. Bloody wrapped with it.

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Cool, what size is that one out of interest?

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Originally Posted by Mark M

Cool, what size is that one out of interest?

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Oops just saw you mentioned the size in the very first post. Cheers