Cutting Board Disaster

http://thewoodwhisperer.com
What Happened?
A few months ago, I woke up one morning, poured my coffee, and was incredibly disappointed to see that my cutting board exploded! OK so maybe it wasn't all that violent but it was cupped like crazy and had a very large split. Upon further inspection, I noticed a bit of trapped water in the center of the underside of the board. Now the thing to remember about end grain cutting boards is that even after finishing, they will still soak up moisture like a sponge. So standing water is your cutting board's Kryptonite!

What Happened?
So how does the split actually occur? Well let's think about what happened. The water soaked into the center of the board and as a result, the center "squares" swelled and expanded. Because the moisture was in the center only, the wood in the outer perimeter did not expand. So something had to give. The resulting crack is really nothing more than pressure relief. Think of it like surrounding a piece of solid wood in a frame. Eventually, the joints in the outer frame will open up if the board in the middle expands.

The Epoxy Fix:
The first step in repairing this disaster simply involves waiting. After a few weeks, the board flattened out and the crack closed up almost completely. But the gap was still big enough that I wanted to use a gap-filling glue, so epoxy did the trick. Now I know what you are thinking. Is epoxy food-safe? While I have heard that food grade FDA-approved epoxies do exist, I have never seen them. And I can definitely say that the West System Epoxy I use is not FDA-approved. So why would I use this on my cutting board? Generally speaking, its the same logic I subscribe to when discussing the safety of film finishes. That is, once cured, the product is inert. In other words, its not chemically reactive and its not actively leaching chemicals under normal room temperature conditions. Furthermore, the crack represents such a small area that actual food contact would be absolutely minimal. Now while I am not prepared to tell you epoxy is completely food-safe, I will say that I consider cured epoxy safe enough to use on a small crack on MY cutting board. Ultimately, the final decision is yours.

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Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• woodworking
• cutting board
• repair
• epoxy

[Cuautemoccc]

do you caulk a maple cabinet door, to paint it? My friend did... and there is a 1/8" crack betwin the frame and the panel? do you think the wood is expandidng, or you just not supous to caulk maple??????

[TheWoodWhisperer]

@Cuautemoccc Personally I wouldn't use caulk for repairing a wooden door. Caulk is flexible and wood isn't. I would use epoxy or a wood filler instead.

[kburke18]

could the crack also have been due to the small differential in shrinkage between the hard maple and purple heart? hard maple has a larger shrinkage factor, so i'm wondering if it shrinks faster than the purple heart it will cause tension in the board.

[TheWoodWhisperer]

@kburke18 Well it is hard to say for sure but that certainly could have been a factor. The board absorbed excess moisture in one localized area. Even if the board were made from only one species, this would have been bad news. But under normal usage conditions, these woods are fairly stable together.

[IronChefPeter]

thanks, nice to know i'm not the only one this has happened to

[TheWoodWhisperer]

@calypsobomber Yeah despite the FDA approval, that's just another type of long oil varnish. It contains the same resins and solvents found in any regular varnish.

[TheWoodWhisperer]

@calypsobomber "food safe sealer" doesn't really mean much. Mineral Oil can be sold as a food safe sealer. What specific product are you talking about?

[RobbieKirkwood]

I honestly don't remember clicking on this video but i watched it all the way through. and i'm not into wood working (if thats what its called) but i bet in like a few years i will randomly have to repair a cutting board to save somebody's life or something and now i will know how. Thank you sir.

[TheScientist0000000]

@TheWoodWhisperer OhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh....­. Sorry, I miss heard you. I was thinking that the problem was that the epoxy was TOO thick and gummy, but instead it is in fact not too gummy enough. Believe it or not, it makes more senser now. Thank you my friend.

[TheWoodWhisperer]

@TheScientist0000000 Nope. Meant it exactly as I said it. The epoxy is too viscous to simply drip into the crack. Thinner liquids have a lower viscosity and thicker liquids have a higher viscosity. In other works, the epoxy is too thick to drip into the crack. Make sense?