Wood Cutting Board Care Instructions.

What is a Laminated wood product?

Are wood cutting boards safe?

So, what is wood, anyway?  The Structure of Wood.

So, what about Bamboo?  What you may not know about this amazing grass.

My Galleries.

Links of interest/Link Partners.

Guarantee & Return Policy.

Privacy & Spam Policy.

No kitchen can do without a good cutting board, and many people prefer a particular type, especially a wooden board.  Wooden cutting boards will last for years and years, but some amount of care is needed, and the following steps will help ensure that your board lasts a long time and is always safe from any food-borne bacteria.  For these care Instructions  click here.

Laminated simply means layers bonded together.  The simplest example would be an ordinary sheet of plywood, which is structural material made of layers of wood glued together, usually with the grains of adjoining layers at right angles to each other.  An important distinction between laminates and veneers is that laminates are solid wood, and a veneer is a thin sheet of wood or other material that is glued down to a backing material, such as plywood or particleboard.  Veneers are important in building large furniture panels, where wood movement needs to be minimized.  Some of my work, such as cutting boards, chess boards, clipboards and some boxes,  consists of  "gluing-up"  laminated panels and machining them into the finished product.

In the picture above, look what happened when I intentionally broke a laminated strip. 

Properly laminated wood glue joints are stronger than the wood itself. 

A purpleheart board "in the raw"

 Into the thickness planer

As the board feeds out of the planer

The chop saw cuts proper lengths

The jointer gives a smooth, square edge

Table saw rips to correct width

Preparing to edge-glue the strips

Rolling out the glue

Clamping the strips together

Sanding the laminated panel flat

Three separate sanding grits are used

Trimming the board edges

 Routing a 'rounded' edge

Sanding the edges

 Finish sanding

After final inspection, the board receives

                a coat of olive oil as a protective, food safe finish.

Years ago, someone I spoke with about wood cutting boards informed me as a matter of fact that wood surfaces were unsafe because they had porous surfaces that held and festered all sorts of harmful little cooties such as bacteria, molds and fungi.  Knowing that such a statement needed to be proven  absolutely true or false, I set out to find data that would support or deny such a claim.  After all, I make and sell a variety of wooden items specifically designed to be used in food preparation.  Well, the verdict is in.....NOT GUILTY !!  As it turns out, wood is one of the safest materials that can be used as a surface in food preparation.   The following article was prepared by Dean O. Cliver, Ph.D,  to summarize his work, and that of his associates, on the safety of plastic and wooden cutting boards. The article can be found here.

Most everyone knows what wood is and where it comes from. Here's an interesting article that gets more involved with the technical characteristics of wood. To read my article, click here.

Here are the Galleries that currently carry some of my work:

Appalachian Spring.  Appalachian Spring is a must visit Craft Gallery specializing in American made craft, so please visit them If you are in the Washington, DC area.

Grove Arcade Arts and Heritage Gallery  The Grove Arcade Arts & Heritage Gallery is a project of the Grove Arcade Public Market Foundation.  Opened in January 2006, this Asheville, NC  gallery is located  in the Grove Arcade, built by E.W. Grove, the visionary and creator of the Grove Park Inn.

NC Crafts Gallery   The NC Crafts Gallery is located on the corner of Weaver Street and West Main Street in Carrboro, and offers a wide assortment of items handcrafted by North Carolina artisans.

The Pottery Connection  Located in the Shops of Baileywick.  Nestled in North Raleigh, Shops of Baileywick is home to over 65 boutiques overflowing with home accessories, furnishings, art & photography, antiques, NC pottery, garden accents, floral designs, gourmet & health foods, special occasion & hostess gifts.  Check out their newest Pottery Connection shop in Wake Forest, NC, located at the Cotton Company.

Southern Spirit Gallery     A new Gallery featuring handmade Fine Crafts and Art in historic Denton, North Carolina.

One Planet Yarn and Fiber   New on-line site specializing in quality yarns, fibers and related products.  Their goal is to represent small independent artisans and companies from every corner of the globe.

noa - jewelry, fine handcrafts and gifts  Unique gem of a store in Groton,  Mass. featuring jewelry & fine handcrafts of 125  artists.

My Favorite WOOD LINKS:

http://ctdovetaildesigns.com/    High quality, one-of-a-kind  wooden Humidors, Jewelry Chests, Men's Valets and Keepsake Boxes.  Charles Tedder is a superb box-maker.

http://hindocarina.com/    Ocarinas are wind instruments.  Charlie Hind is a master-woodworker technician and makes them out of wood. 

Brooms and Boxes   Richard and Carol Moore are craftsmen that honor the Shaker tradition with their handcrafted Brooms and Boxes

Wood sample pictures and information   HobbitHouse maintains an amazing site about woods of the world.  This site is a non-commercial site focusing on color-correct pictures of exotic and domestic woods, and he has close to 30,000 wood pictures on this site.

The American Woods   From the Special Collections Research Center of the North Carolina State University  Libraries.  Radial, tangential, and cross-sections of 350 North American woods from the 14-volume rare book The American Woods, published between 1888 and 1910 by the author, Romeyn Beck Hough. The images can be accessed by volume number or by the scientific or common name of each tree.

VISIT

The Oldest And Largest Craft Directory On The Web

Take a look at the Chess-Theory  "Virtual Art Museum"

LINK PARTNERS  Art and Craft related websites. 

Every item made by Lee Chesson is constructed with  high quality workmanship and materials.  If you are not satisfied with your purchase,return it within 10 days in it's original condition for exchange or refund.  Our goal is to maintain relationships with completely satisfied customers.