End Grain Cutting Board
Don Stephan
A good friend, a relatively new woodworker, made a pair of end grain cutting boards and asked me why they warp and straighten, warp and straighten.
He alternated cubes of black walnut and hard maple, about 1 3/4" on a side. He ripped strips from 2 year old lumber, jointed and drum sanded the surfaces, glued alternating strips together with Titebond, crosscut, then glued the crosscuts together. Leaving each cuitting board laying on the assemble table, the next day they were cupped. Turned them over for a day and they straightened out, then cupped in the opposite direction. He send me a photo, and I noticed the individual cubes were a mix of quarter and rift grain, and sometimes the grain orientation was consistent across the width of the cutting board, sometimes not.
Understanding Wood by Bruce Hoadley suggests the two woods have very similar tangential and radial wood movement factors. He is tempted to wait for the cutting boards to flatten out again and wipe on several coats of tung oil, to try to minimize moisture movement into and out of the wood.
For my friend Grant, has anyone made end grain cutting boards of alternating woods? Did you have the same experience? Did you select boards that allowed all the blocks to have the same grain orientation (quartered or rift) and assemble with consistent grain orientation?
Thanks in advance.
