While they are meant to be used, you bought this board for its beautiful combination of woods. Over time it will accumulate scratches and cuts and will start to look faded. In order to keep it looking it’s best:
- Wash your board promptly after use and allow it to completely dry in a rack so its not standing on a damp surface.
- Don’t leave the board sitting in or submerged in water
- Never clean one in a dishwasher
- These cutting boards are not oven safe. They will, in fact, burn if you let them.
This is a smaller, handy 15″ x 9″ x 1.5″ cutting board made from walnut, cherry, poplar, and bubinga. It has beveled sides for easy gripping and is finished with food-safe tung oil and topped with two coats of beeswax and oil.
Each board is unique; I don’t use a standard pattern. Each board is carefully packaged and shipped insured anywhere in the continental US for free. Order today by clicking the link below.
To keep the colors bright, periodically wipe the board down with oil. Any food-safe oil will do: I have a whole page explaining the subtleties surrounding oils for those interested in that sort of arcana. The short version is that there are two kinds of oils: drying and non-drying. Both are fine to use. Non-drying oils are all types of vegetable oils (e.g., canola, olive, etc.) and mineral oils.
When you are using one of these, wipe on a thin coat and allow it to dry overnight every few weeks. They are called non-drying because, you guessed it, they don’t dry, so if you put it on too thick, you’ll just get oil on things. Thin coats appear to dry because they are absorbed into the wood.
Drying oil polymerizes in the presence of oxygen and, therefore, creates a harder, more durable surface. It will stand up to washing much better. Examples of these are some types of Linseed Oil (a.k.a. flax oil) and tung oil (which is often given gimmicky marketing names like walnut oil or walrus oil). Walnut oil is a thing, but it’s not usually what you get in a can from a big box store.
There are two things to note about these oils: 1) The polymerization process is exothermic, and you can start a fire with used rags if you aren’t careful. Read and follow the appropriate directions. 2) Boiled linseed oil isn’t boiled (isn’t marketing lovely?). It’s been treated with metallic driers that allow it to cure overnight instead of over weeks. Eventually, these chemicals will volatilize away, and you’ll be fine. But that could take weeks, depending on conditions. No form of linseed oil you can buy at a big box store is really food-safe in the short term. Instead, go to a natural food or supplements store and get flax oil, or order specifically labeled food-safe linseed oil from one of the many places online.
Since these oils harden when used regularly, they will build a solid finish. The old 18th-century-era furniture saying is: oil once a day for a week, once a month of a year, and once a year ever after. Obviously, they aren’t washing those, but you get the idea.