Hi All
I’m just thinking about making a chopping board from some oak I have and planned to add some epoxy on it and just wondered if anyone has any tips or advice about adding epoxy to a chopping board or is it a bad idea
Thanks in advance
Dave
TL;DR, IMO No plastic near sharp and/or pointy things. But plenty of people do it.
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You can get food safe epoxy. Don’t understand the difference but …
Hey Dave,
professional cutting or chopping boards made of wood never have epoxy on it.
When kitchen boards are made of plastic, they are made of HDPE because it’s soft enough to not make your knives dull.
However, both HDPE cutting boards that have strayed into my household many years ago always get a very unpleasant smell from the organic deposits in the countless cutting grooves.
This is not the case with any of my wooden cutting boards, which may be because wood is said to have antiseptic properties.
With wooden cutting boards, I would make sure that they are end-grain, i.e. that the grain goes from top to bottom and not sideways, because this makes the knives dull less quickly.
Oak has large pores which is not ideal for contact with water and food, usually a cutting board is better made from a wood with smaller pores.
Oak is used for barrels for aging wine because of its contribution to the aroma. Oak has a higher rot resistance than other hardwoods which is why it is used in timber framing, for exterior doors and windows, exterior stairs and historically in shipbuilding.
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Hey Alex,
this means that the epoxy resin is cured in such a way that the final product is not expected to be attacked by the components of food and is classified food-safe. However, this will not help against shaving off the material on a cutting board.
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It all sounds like great advice, I’m glad I reached out for comments,
I had some doubts about using epoxy on a chopping board that’s why I asked and my doubts have been confirmed,
If Oak isn’t the best choice what would be ?,
I also need something for red (flowers) & green (Stems) inlay’s
Regards
Dave
If you are looking for different colors of wood, here is a good source.
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Hey Dave,
I make my cutting boards of european beech which is pretty red. When I make art, I hang it on the wall but I don’t cut around on it 
When I see some extraordinary good works here, I would never dare to cut my vegetables on it
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I like that, its amazing
Dave
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going to print that and hang it on the wall
Walnut and Maple are popular wood for cutting boards, possibly Pauduk or purpleheart for red colored, I think you can dye wood like Maple for green
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Our local Lowes sells these 24x24" 1" thick teak blocks for $42 that I think would be perfect for a cutting board. I used one for another project, and it machined like a champ. As far as epoxy goes, I have made plenty of those chacuterie boards with epoxy. They would be horrible under the chopping force of a knife, not to mention quickly trashing the edge of a knife.
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I wish our Lowes had that deal, that is a good price for Teak, I have a friend that makes a lot of cutting boards and charcuterie boards with epoxy resin inlay, he sells a ton of these at our local craft market in Southern Utah. I think people buy them not to use but more for decoration
16”x3’ inch thick teak for $47 at my lowes. Never thought to look. Thanks Bern.
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Hey all,
since about a few decades, I own a few teak cutting boards. Teak is extraordinarily durable and water-resistant. Unlike other hardwoods, you can leave it in water for a while without it cracking, it just throws. It can even survive a dishwashing machine. But due to its high natural rubber content, which makes up its waterresistance, it is difficult to glue.
Its origin are the deciduous monsoon forests of South and Southeast Asia. Since overpopulation and the international high demand for wood has already destroyed large parts of these forests in favor of cultivated land, thorn savannah or anthropogenic semi-desert, and a part is illegally deforested, I do not use it (the wood. I still use the old cutting boards. Not using them would not make the forest alive again 
. But would not buy new)
And, it probably means the FDA (or your local country’s food oversight organization) has tested it doesn’t leached anything less than desirable into the food. There are only 1 or 2 epoxies I know of that have gone through the process. None are deep pour BTW.
-Tom
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Hi Dave - oak has an open grain structure – maple and cherry would be better choices. Many use walnut (as do I) but its grain is more open than maple and cherry too. As long as the board is properly seasoned (e.g., finished) most hardwoods should be fine (e.g., oiled/waxed). I would stay away from any of the soft woods like pine and cedar (although, a little salmon on a cedar plank is lovely :))
I’ve a couple examples of the boards I’ve made on my website and our product gallery.
-Tom
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This is all great advice, I wasn’t too keen iin the first place on using epoxy and now I’m definitely not going to,
I’ve made various chopping boards in the past like this one from Walnut
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Beautiful, is that basically an inlay?
Those look great I have a scrabble thing like this at home. I’m moving away from epoxy it’s not so bad but then you have to sand it so your asking for plastic dust everywhere. Can’t be good
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