The 3 most popular types of wood cutting boards

When it comes to cutting board design, it seems that there is infinite possibility in size, shape, pattern, color, etc. At its core, however, there are 3 popular types of wood cutting boards available – live edge, face grain and end grain. Each of these types of cutting boards are made differently, have a different distinct style and come with a set of pros and cons.

Live Edge

The first type of cutting board we will discuss is a live edge, also known as a natural edge. It is a wood cut leaves a natural or living edge of the tree intact on the final product, usually for aesthetic reasons. Some pieces will have one side with a live edge and some will have two, like a wood slab. When live edges are used in a cutting board, the bark has to be removed (for hygienic reasons), but the irregular shapes and curves remain. You may see wood slabs with the natural edge used as table tops. In these causes, more of the natural bark may be left intact.

The natural edge makes each piece unique and adds a level of personality. Many times, these cutting boards are one solid piece of wood that is finely finished. The advantage to being one solid piece of wood is that they are less susceptible to adverse environmental conditions. They don’t typically bow or crack like cutting boards made of multiple pieces of wood.

Also, because of being one solid piece, live edge boards are relatively quick to make which reduces costs during their production. Because of their unique look, there is a high demand for these types of boards, especially charcuterie boards.

Face Grain

A very common type of cutting board is face grain, sometimes referred to edge grain. When we think of cutting boards, this is probably the type that comes to mind. These cutting boards are made out of multiple pieces of wood glued together lengthwise. Imagine a series of toothpicks or 2x4s lined up next to each other. That lengthwise view then becomes the cutting surface.

A woodworker can play around a lot with wood species in various sizes to create colorful and interesting patterns. Face grain cutting boards can also provide a simple background in which a design can also be engraved or inlayed on top of.

Face grain cutting boards are very durable, but they tend to show scarring and can be more dulling to knives. This is caused by the knife blade cutting across the edge of the wood grain where it experiences more resistance, thus causing the blade to dull faster. Since these boards are made with multiple pieces of wood, jointed (attached) together, they can warp, bow or crack when exposed to adverse conditions, like excessive moisture. To prevent those issues, see out post on caring for cutting boards at : https://910woodshopblog.com/cutting-board-care-methods-2/.

End Grain

The final type of wood cutting board that we will discuss is end grain. End grain cutting boards are made with the cross sections of wood visible on the cutting surface. Imagine a bunch of 2x4s stacked together and you are viewing them from the end. Similar to the face grain cutting boards, end grain cutting boards really allow makers to be even more creative with patterns.

When making end grain cutting boards, wood pieces are glued together side by side first, then cut into strips and re-glued to create the visible cross section. Due to these additional steps, end grain cutting boards tend to be more expensive. All of the manipulation of the wood (cutting and regluing steps) along with the creation of numerous joints (where the edges of separate wood pieces touch each other) within the board, end grain cutting boards are the most susceptible to adverse environmental conditions. We touched on in this and linked to our care post in the face grain section above.

One of the amazing things about end grain cutting boards is that they are actually self healing. This means that they don’t experience the scarring that other types of cutting boards do because the wood fibers close back in together after a knife passes through them. Not only that, but cutting with the wood fibers, rather than against them, also extends the life of the blade. This means there is less resistance for the blade to go through. This is a reason why a lot of professional chef’s prefer to use end grain cutting boards.

In summary

With that, we have discussed the 3 main types of wood cutting boards – live edge, face grain and end grain. Live edge cutting boards maintain a natural edge. Face grain uses the long pieces of wood as the cutting surface. Lastly, end grain boards display cross sections of wood on the cutting surface. Each has their pros and cons and each has a solid place in the cutting board world. Let us know any other advantages and disadvantages to these types in the comments!

To see some examples of cutting boards that 9:10 Wood Shop has worked on, check out our gallery here https://910woodshopblog.com/910-gallery/. To see our line of cutting boards, check out our shop here https://ninetenwoodshop.etsy.com.
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