Anyone ever made a butcher block?

[seedspreader]

For the price (850.00) has anyone ever made one?

[FrankTheTank]

Are the wood sections glued together? I've would love to have a bigger one then the one i have, but that don't seem to sell them any bigger...

[jeffreyc256]

If you have your own shop and tools it is pretty easy. From the photo you attached, I am guessing the block to be 3ft square and 12 inches thick. Converting that to board ft of finished wood is around 108 BF. To get that from raw wood it would probably take 150bf. The best way to do it would be to have a thickness planer or jointer to true the stock. You would want hard maple. Look at the cost of 150bf of hard maple kiln dried and the time and tools required to do it yourself and the cost doesnt look that bad at leahmans. If you have access to maple and can air dry it and cull out the checks it would be much cheaper.

If you modify the design a bit and cheat on the wearable surface you could build it much cheaper. Build a scrap wood core and then cover the top with 3-4 inches of the maple on end and wrap with a 12 inch to 24 inch skirt and no one will know the difference but you. It will take you two life times to wear through 3-4 inches of hard maple unless you take a cleaver to it daily. You will still need to size the blocks for a tight fit. I bet ole tn hermit has planers, jointer thickness sander etc. and could build you one. You could even have someone like that prep the wood for you if you wanted to assemble it yourself.

good luck

[affenpinschermom]

Jeffrey is correct. We've made several butcher blocks and we cheat by making a skirt around it. No one can tell the difference. You'll never wear them out. We've made them out of red oak and that works about as well as maple. I love mine.

[blufford]

http://www.deadzoom.com/member/blufford/ston/sto2.bmp

[amelia]

I've done it, and was surprised how much wood was sacrificed after planing and jointing each piece. The cost was fairly considerable as a result.

My really big mistake, tho, was using regular wood glue--not a smart thing considering the fact that a butcher block is going to get wet. I think I'd opt for epoxy next time around.

[Rick]

Bob

My brother in law has the neatest block I've ever seen. It was used in a crate/ packing system, but he can't remember what it was used to ship.

It is at least 24, mavbe 30 inches deep, maybe 54 inches wide, and at least 2 inches thick. It reminds me of a huge lucite, cutting board.

Does anyone have a clue about this type of shipping material? I'd love to locate one myself!

Rick

[Darren]

The original commercial butcher blocks were made out of sycamore. I met an older man in Mississippi in the 70's that had made extra money long before that by cutting blocks out of sycamore. Even that long ago he was getting over $100 per block.

Sycamore is one of those woods that doesn't get used for much anymore other than pulp for OSB. It used to also be used for early Pullman cars because it was possible to cut large panels from a log. I've got an old sycamore plank that's over 20" wide that has never warped, cupped, etc.

[Snakeoil]

Yep, made mine using scrap pieces of mahogany. Have had and used it for about 20 years now.

[bearkiller]

Used to run a cabinet shop. We used a lot of red oak for cabinet face frames. Lumber came off the truck surfaced two sides to a uniform 13/16 inch. After using up a couple of units of lumber in the usual work there are so many shorts laying around to build 50 blocks like these shown.

The red oak is open grained so many "pro's" do not like it and their first choice is closed grain maple. But, from experience, oak works very well. After the top is made up I oiled it down with olive oil. After using the block and after clean-up oil it down again. Never had any problems and always had happy customers. Just takes a little instruction.

Usually joint one edge to get it straight, run it through the table saw to get uniform widths. Run it through the shaper to get glue joint edge. Then start gluing them up. Biggest I made was 36 inches wide and 96 inches long.

Use Titebond III glue for assembly. Yes, water based glue, but once cured it survives boiling water for hours. In practical use, never a problem.

bearkiller

[Ed Norman]

I saw one made from a maple bowling alley once. He cut across the alley to length, sent it thru a planer to remove the finish, and glued the pieces together. I always wanted to find an old bowling alley to make a block like that and also countertops and workbenches.

[randy in central missouri]

is the glue type a concern. i always wondered about this. since you are cutting meat on it. or the finish you use on it. what do you use.
randy

[bearkiller]

Glues:

The old casein white glue bonds well and sticks like crazy. BUT it does not tolerate repeated wetting very well. It was what we had at the time, but those times are long gone. Then the best waterproof glue was powdered boatbuilder's glue. But it was brown and ugly and nasty to work with.

Later came the Titebond stuff which was much better, though still a "white" glue, but a vast improvement.

Still later came Titebond II and now Titebond III. Great stuff. Works like the old white glue, but when cured it is pretty much impervious to water and there forever.

Finishes:

I always preferred to oil this kind of work with olive oil because it fills the wood pores like any other oil. But if cutting meat or rolling pastry "draws" the oil out of the wood, you do not acquire any nasty oil taste as from some of the commercial oils. After clean-up, wipe it dry and then re-oil with olive oil for a continued beautiful finish with no nasty side effects related to the use of many commercial oils. Some of that stuff is pretty awful to taste.

bearkiller

[djuhnke]

From a sanitary point of view, wood surface is bad. This is where alot of people do get sick from (cut up a chicken and also make a pie). Wood absorbs. Use plastic.

Now if you still like playing with fire, the best wood is actually the flooring from semi's. Its all hard wood. Lay it on end, plane it and glue. After gluing, sand until smooth.