Wood Selection for Cutting Board

[Cubsfan]

I'm looking at making the Cutting Board and I need some help in picking out wood to use.

I'd like to make it out of only wood from South Africa (it's a present for a person from South Africa).

Anyway, I know absolutely nothing about South African woods. I did find this distributor (from South Africa, so not a place I could actually order the wood from) that has a good list of some South African Woods:
http://www.timbermerchant.co.za/african.html

But I'm not entirely sure which ones would be suitable, both in qualities and color, for a cutting board. Anyone have any ideas?

[headhunter636]

I have seen Padauk used in cutting boards, it is a South African wood I believe. After Googling it I found this source, but I am sure there are more out there.

http://www.exotic-wood.com/african_padauk.htm

[pecker]

African woods might actually be better for cutting on than the maple or beech typically used, as they are quite dense.

However, some of those are more difficult to glue together. They can be a bit oily.

[pelligrini]

I'd like to make it out of only wood from South Africa (it's a present for a person from South Africa).

I can't help with the wood recommendations, but you might reconsider using woods from South Africa for a person from there.

On a house we are doing for a couple from Persia we explored using some intricate design elements that had a base in historical Persian Architecture. We thought it looked really cool, but the clients didn't think the same. They were impressed with the detailing, but they said that this type of thing is pretty common to them and that they were looking for something more unusual. It was unusual to us, but it used to be an everyday thing for them.

Just something to consider.

[Ed62]

I can't help on the recommendation either. But a Cubs fan from Colorado? What's the story? Welcome aboard from a Sox fan.

Ed

[phrog]

I did some research recently for making a cutting board for a friend. I talked him into buying a ready made board because I was too busy at the time to experiment. While doing the research, I found several very useful sites. This first one is part one video and was very useful about patterns and woods (This guy uses hard maple and purpleheart but gives advice on kinds of wood to look for.). Next is a link to part two which has very useful info about finishes and maintenance. They are about 8-10 minutes each but are very much worth the time. MY third link is to a site that has a great deal of info about many different kinds of woods. Hope these help.
Richard

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-...-above-part-1/

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/episode-...-above-part-2/

http://www.woodworkerssource.com/let...er=M&viewing=0

Here's another link to a free software program to help design a cutting board:

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/11372

[jgrobler]

Cubsfan -
You shouldn't! But thanks, I'll appreciate it

Teak is south african, very dense, but it is oily. There is also a variety of ipe, that I knew as ironwood, very heavy and dense, and brutal on tools. Mahogany would be a good choice too. Meranti is open grained, so not well suited. Yellow wood (my direct translation from a Geelhout tree) may be a good fit too. Stinkhout is also a good possibility, but has a terrible smell when you cut it, hence the name, and is also hard on tools. Oh, and you do get maple trees in South Africa, so you don't need to rule that out.

That said, I haven't seen most of these woods at my local lumberyards, Teak being the only exception, and then only by exception.

Johan

[jgrobler]

Something else to consider if you do want to order from a place in South Africa, they've converted to the metric system, and you buy wood by cubic meter. 1 cubic meter is a lot of wood. IIRC, 1 cubic meter is over 420 BF. It took me a while to get used to the BF way of buying wood here, but it's easier now than a cubic meter that's an impossible number to figure out when you want to buy some wood for a table or something.

[Cubsfan]

Thanks for the help everyone! I've got some good ideas now for some good wood, the problem may be finding it at this point It may end up being a present for next year's birthday!

I'm thinking I'd like to do one out of mahogany and yellow wood (I think yellow wood would be cool since I think it's the national tree of South Africa)

Thanks again for all the help!