Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998
White oak cutting board question?
Barry Irby
I have scraps of white oak left over from my table project. I am considering turning them into an end grain cutting board. Normally I stay away from coarse open grained wood for cutting boards, but they make bourbon barrels out of white oak because the cells are filled. I made one out of walnut once and it turned out to be a filter for the oil. Put oil on the top and it would drip out the bottom.
So, what do you think of a white oak cutting board?
White Oak Boards
Kevin French
I'm making cutting boards, serving trays and lazy susans out of wine and whiskey barrel heads although not end grain. I use food grade butchers block oil and ad bees wax to it.
Re: White oak cutting board question?
Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana
Barry, I have made cutting boards from many different varieties of hardwoods including White Oak. White Oak is not porous as its pores are plugged with tyloses. I "seal" my boards with various mixes of Wax, Paraffin, and oils and have never seen (or heard from owners I have made boards for), any problems.
I just use the scraps left over from various projects. I have used Walnut, Cherry, Oak, Hackberry, Elm, Hard Maple, Locust etc.
Re: Walnut
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
Made a number of walnut cutting boards, both face and end grain, with 0 issues. All my boards are sealed with red-can Waterlox applied in multiple coats until the board won't take any more. The end grain boards will leak a bit in spots with the first or second coat but that stops so I know the board is "sealed" clear through. Applying maintenance oil and wax to the cutting surfaces is never a problem afterwards.
Re: White oak cutting board question?
JL
The plugged pores in white oak are fairly resistant to finishes (or mineral oil) hosing through them. I personally like the way the side grain of white oak looks.
I have had some food "stain" white oak or react with it in some fashion. But hey, it's a cutting board 
. The stains can usually be bleached out if desired.
