Building cutting boards is one of those areas that has never interested me, and as a result, I have never made one. After seeing a few interesting ones at the recent Perth Woodshow, I thought that it would be a way to use up some offcuts. In particular, I want to make a couple of the end grain chaotic style types.
Which glue is suitable? Titebond III is waterproof but takes long to cure, which reduces the amount of work one can do - these chaotic style boards require a lot of gluing, re-sawing, re-gluing, etc. Titebond II is water resistant, and quick to dry. But is it water resistant enough?
Our cutting boards are not decorative. Critters and vegies are cut up on them daily. So we have a bit of practical experience. We also take appropriate care of them.
I have boards decades old made with regular yellow glue. However, we don't put them in the dishwasher or other foolish things. If not treated like it is made of wood it will be destroyed no matter the glue. And if washed, wiped dry or air dried, never soaked over night, dried in the oven and other things that wood doesn't like one glue is as good as another.
The main thing is to keep it oiled so it doesn't soak up water. What ever cooking oil is handy makes a durable enough finish and water runs right off when washing. When the wood begins to look dry it gets a bath in oil then wiped.
I don't have data to suggest that one glue cures any slower than another. Those you mention all cure by water diffusing into the wood. How dry the wood is is a bigger variable in the cure rate than the glue. Initial tack differs a bit among them but we are talking a few minutes difference not hours.
If you have not made cutting boards what do you cut stuff on?
Maple and cherry are excellent woods for boards.
Hi Bill
It sounds as though you are referring to boards made in face grain. I have made a number of similar "cutting boards" from offcuts, such as the 16" long board used as bread board from Sheoak ...
But this is not what I am after. It is not end grain, and it required no manufacturing.
I am planning a "chaos-style", end grain board. This requires multiple glue lines. Hence my concern about the type of glue used ...
I have made dozens of cutting boards over the years including end grain ones and some chaotic ones.
I agree with Bill on the glue, but use Titebond lll or ll if I have it. Thirty minutes or an hour is enough time between glue ups in a "room temperature" shop. Not good in a cold shop.
I know very little about your timber. I know some of it is very hard and would probably make excellent boards, but what I don't know is whether it is open celled or closed cell. I made some end grain boards out of walnut scraps and they were thin, about 1 1/8' or maybe 30mm. They were very fine filters. If you poured oil on the top side and let it sit a while it would soak all the way through and IIRC might even drip from the bottom. They were too thin and cracked. I was too stingy, even with scraps.
I would make them out of closed cell dense woods and somewhat thicker, maybe shooting for a final thickness around 2" or 50mm. Allow more for all the milling as they tend to get thinner and thinner as you cut and reglue them. Seems there is always a short one that requires cutting all the rest down to match.
I made several out of Osage Orange, very dense and harder than Woodpeckers lips. The pieces had cracked into pie shaped wedges. I glued them up as triangles and trapezoids into roughly rectangular sections. I jointed the sections on a jointer with a helical head and glued them up into a board. Sanded them to about 220 and oiled them with Safflower oil. (tasteless and no allergy issues). They start out bright yellow and mellow to the color of bourbon. My family keeps taking them away from me. Beautiful. Wish I had one.
I am not a fan of blood grooves. What I do on a chopping board is make the dished out or hollow. The corners rest on the counter and the middle is 1/4 to 1/2" low. The blood and juice pools in the middle. One side is flat (cutting board) and the other is dished (chopping board).
Some of these are heavy and I have been known to put finger grooves in the edges.
Follow Bill's admonitions about taking care of them. No soaking in water or dishwashers or ovens. Any non allergenic oil is fine. More is better than less.
In your first post you said, "as a result, I have never made one [a cutting board]."
It is irrelevant to glue choice what way the grain goes. I have one made in early 1970's that is end grain and used regular Titebond. Doing well so far. I have made dozens of other since.
You are not going to use this art project as a cutting board so it matters not what is used to glue it. Think of it as a flat segmented turning and go ask what to use on the turning forum that makes the assembly easy.
Or, why not ask one of the makers from the "the recent Perth Woodshow".
Cyanoacrylate would seem to be ideal but the cured glue degrades over time. Dry conditions should prolong its life because the degredation reaction requires a molecule of water.
