is Brazilian Cherry food Safe?

It's safe enough, but remember, it ranks right up there
with cold rolled steel in hardness. It also tends to chip
easily. It will dull blades/bits like crazy.



Richard Clements wrote:

> I'm looking at making some cutting boards I'm using Maple and and thought
> Cherry would look nice, but the cheepest I can find it is $6.75 bf, but
> they have Brazilian Cherry at 3.40bf, is Brazilian Cherry food safe? how
> well dose it hold up? the only Cherry I've uses was some I saved from
> being firewood
>
>
> Richard

Richard Clements" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm looking at making some cutting boards I'm using Maple and and thought
> Cherry would look nice, but the cheepest I can find it is $6.75 bf, but
> they have Brazilian Cherry at 3.40bf, is Brazilian Cherry food safe? how
> well dose it hold up? the only Cherry I've uses was some I saved from
> being firewood
>
>
> Richard

They would be really pretty, and they'd darken with age to a really nice
deep red color. They would probably dull your knives, if you are anal about
your knives. We have the sawz-all knifes that you get for a buck each, so
we're not too concerned. I made my dining room table out of the stuff, and
it was murder on my sawblades, murder on my planes and murder on me and my
lungs. I was sanding it with a regular old dust mask on, and it gave me a
bloody nose. Respirator recommended. I read up a bit on it when I was
considering it for the table, and it seems to have a lot of silicon in it,
supposedly drawn up by the roots. Very abrasive. The other thing to
mention -- It moves ALOT. I would assume a cutting board would be
relatively unfinished, so if you do a breadboard edge, do it right, with
tabs and elongated holes. Anything else will self destruct. Also, if you are
doing any glue ups, use biscuits, or T&G, and wipe the ends good with
acetone or something first to get rid of the oils. It's kinda like teak, it
doesn't like to take glue into the pores. It can be glued, but don't drop
the cutting board too many times. If push comes to shove, it will split on
the glue joint because the stuff is like a rock. That's my two cents...

I was just going to do Butt joints it's on it, alternating with Maple,
should I dowel it?

mark wrote:

> Richard Clements" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> I'm looking at making some cutting boards I'm using Maple and and thought
>> Cherry would look nice, but the cheepest I can find it is $6.75 bf, but
>> they have Brazilian Cherry at 3.40bf, is Brazilian Cherry food safe? how
>> well dose it hold up? the only Cherry I've uses was some I saved from
>> being firewood
>>
>>
>> Richard
>
> They would be really pretty, and they'd darken with age to a really nice
> deep red color. They would probably dull your knives, if you are anal
> about your knives. We have the sawz-all knifes that you get for a buck
> each, so
> we're not too concerned. I made my dining room table out of the stuff,
> and it was murder on my sawblades, murder on my planes and murder on me
> and my
> lungs. I was sanding it with a regular old dust mask on, and it gave me a
> bloody nose. Respirator recommended. I read up a bit on it when I was
> considering it for the table, and it seems to have a lot of silicon in it,
> supposedly drawn up by the roots. Very abrasive. The other thing to
> mention -- It moves ALOT. I would assume a cutting board would be
> relatively unfinished, so if you do a breadboard edge, do it right, with
> tabs and elongated holes. Anything else will self destruct. Also, if you
> are doing any glue ups, use biscuits, or T&G, and wipe the ends good with
> acetone or something first to get rid of the oils. It's kinda like teak,
> it
> doesn't like to take glue into the pores. It can be glued, but don't drop
> the cutting board too many times. If push comes to shove, it will split
> on
> the glue joint because the stuff is like a rock. That's my two cents...

On Fri, 05 Nov 2004 23:30:43 -0600, Australopithecus scobis
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Fri, 05 Nov 2004 16:59:47 +0000, rcook5 wrote:
>
>> and I've never had one come apart, even mixing maple and exotics --
>
>The maple cutting board I got from Kmart came apart in the wash. No prob,
>it wound up being a bunch of jigs and knife handles. The cost per board
>foot was competitive with lumberyard maple, too.

Well I hope I can build a better cutting board than you can buy at
Kmart! (He said huffily.)

Seriously, someone mentioned the size of the cutting board. Mine are
all the pizza paddle type with a cutting surface about 8-12" by
10-14". I hadn't thought about what might happen with a larger one.
OTOH I like to make mine an 1-1/2" thick, so something much bigger
than what I make would be hard to handle.

--RC

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
Never get your philosophy from some guy who ended up in the looney bin.
-- Wiz Zumwalt

"Richard Clements" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I was just going to do Butt joints it's on it, alternating with Maple,
> should I dowel it?
>
If it were me, I'd probably throw a biscuit or two in there, but I guess it
depends on how big you make it. My cutting board is about 2 feet wide, and
almost the width of the counter. It stays there all the time. If you're just
making the little hand-held "miniature pizza paddle" type, I wouldn't
bother.

On Fri, 05 Nov 2004 09:05:48 -0700, Richard Clements
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I was just going to do Butt joints it's on it, alternating with Maple,
>should I dowel it?

For a cutting board? No reason to. I've never doweled a cutting board
and I've never had one come apart, even mixing maple and exotics --
which I do frequently.

--RC
>
>mark wrote:
>
>> Richard Clements" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>> I'm looking at making some cutting boards I'm using Maple and and thought
>>> Cherry would look nice, but the cheepest I can find it is $6.75 bf, but
>>> they have Brazilian Cherry at 3.40bf, is Brazilian Cherry food safe? how
>>> well dose it hold up? the only Cherry I've uses was some I saved from
>>> being firewood
>>>
>>>
>>> Richard
>>
>> They would be really pretty, and they'd darken with age to a really nice
>> deep red color. They would probably dull your knives, if you are anal
>> about your knives. We have the sawz-all knifes that you get for a buck
>> each, so
>> we're not too concerned. I made my dining room table out of the stuff,
>> and it was murder on my sawblades, murder on my planes and murder on me
>> and my
>> lungs. I was sanding it with a regular old dust mask on, and it gave me a
>> bloody nose. Respirator recommended. I read up a bit on it when I was
>> considering it for the table, and it seems to have a lot of silicon in it,
>> supposedly drawn up by the roots. Very abrasive. The other thing to
>> mention -- It moves ALOT. I would assume a cutting board would be
>> relatively unfinished, so if you do a breadboard edge, do it right, with
>> tabs and elongated holes. Anything else will self destruct. Also, if you
>> are doing any glue ups, use biscuits, or T&G, and wipe the ends good with
>> acetone or something first to get rid of the oils. It's kinda like teak,
>> it
>> doesn't like to take glue into the pores. It can be glued, but don't drop
>> the cutting board too many times. If push comes to shove, it will split
>> on
>> the glue joint because the stuff is like a rock. That's my two cents...

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
Never get your philosophy from some guy who ended up in the looney bin.
-- Wiz Zumwalt

On Fri, 05 Nov 2004 16:59:47 +0000, rcook5 wrote:

> and I've never had one come apart, even mixing maple and exotics --

The maple cutting board I got from Kmart came apart in the wash. No prob,
it wound up being a bunch of jigs and knife handles. The cost per board
foot was competitive with lumberyard maple, too.

--
"Keep your ass behind you"