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Welcome to the Wooded Blog. Read our extended musings about our company and our favorite subject (it’s wood) and our favorite activity (rubbing it with Jack Wax). Have a question not covered by the Blog? Contact us via the Service page.
So you’re peeking at our wood and wondering what our collections mean, exactly? First of all, thank you for browsing; we’re so proud to offer them, and tell stories that reflect ourselves, Cape Cod and most importantly, the stunning stories told by nature, deep in the grains of the forest, that would otherwise go unseen.
These wooden scenes of artistry are the inspiration behind our Wooded Studio cutting board collection; these boards are each a unique creation sold individually.
For scenarios where durability and customization is a priority, our Wooded Designs collections offer classic boards with select-able sizes, and optional juice grooves and edge engraving.
One-of-a-Kind Pieces
These are our… top blocks! Our process begins with wood selection; seeking the raw lumber with a story to tell, pieces and varieties with vivid contrast and unique shapes and figuring. Through what is often over 30 steps to follow, we cut and assemble boards into a tapestry of natural patterns that evoke thought and draw the eye. Top of the Block boards range in size, and while most are end grain boards, some exquisite long-grain boards for carving or charcuterie can be found at times.
These charming boards have a rustic story to tell. Board singles begin with carefully-chosen lumber that is both extra wide and with special character. We cut the wood as few times as possible, preserving the full width and the board’s end to display a single grain pattern across the width of the board. Board Singles typically range from 10-13 inches in width, with varying length based on artistic judgement and lumber characteristics. Browse their profiles and take one home today!
Our unique pieces that are a little edgy! Some of the stories told by wood can be a tad controversial, and our Knotty pieces often thread that needle. In some cases, they can feature unusual mineral markings (a common added character in some woods), bolder patterns, or unusual sizes that we wouldn’t typically feature elsewhere.
Custom Boards for Order
Wooded Designs features classic boards, built custom to your liking! This collection features end grain cutting boards in all-Maple or all-Cherry, or one of a few patterns, each with a range of sizes to select. These boards can be customized with an optional Juice Groove and/or a custom engraving on an edge of the board. As with all Wooded boards, we take great care to build visually appealing pieces with cohesive grain patterns and superior build quality.
Wooded Charc boards are made with Charcuterie in mind, featuring longer sizes and classic long-grain wood patterns. We build ‘em thick for extra durability and many boards feature custom US-forged handles for easy carrying.
As you search for an artisan cutting board from Wooded or other makers, you will often come across references to grain orientation. This often appears as something like “End-Grain Cutting Board”, or a few similar terms. Many wonder what this means, and whether it really matters. Let’s dive in and explore the differences, and how these topics impact our portfolio at Wooded Carving Company.
Fundamentally, wood surfaces can be arranged in one of two manners. For now, let’s call them “End Grain” or “Long Grain”. If you can envision browsing through a hardware or lumber store and looking at a stud or 2x4, you’d likely be seeing a long, skinny, roughly 8-12 foot long plank of wood. If you looked at that plank on its widest face (”on top”) or its narrow face (”on edge”), you’d see the grain lines going side-to-side, the Long Grain of the wood. If you pulled it off the rack and looked at the small end of the wood, you'd be seeing the same grains but in an End Grain orientation.
In the vast majority of scenarios, whether in construction, furniture, tables, and other wood surfaces, you’re almost always looking at, and using the Long Grain surface. Only in a few applications would you ever be exposed to the End Grain of the wood, and cutting boards are one of them. Why, you ask?
Cutting boards, unlike many other surfaces, are meant for… cutting. Unlike most other surfaces, you get a cutting board with the intention of abusing it; gouging into it with your best, sharpest knife as you chop, slice and carve your way through food. And for that particular use case, End Grain is simply superior. It exhibits what some would call a softer feeling on your knife, resulting in a nicer tactile sensation as you bang the blade into the board. That feeling is not just smoother on your wrist, but it’s gentler on your knife, dulling it less quickly. It also results in a cleaner, longer-lasting cutting board as End Grain is known to have self-healing properties.
We’ll admit, this pitch can seem like magic beans (until you’ve owned a proper End Grain board). But it’s real and scientifically-rooted in the properties of wood. A plank of wood is a slice of a tree trunk, which is a structure designed to transport moisture and nutrients from the ground to branches and leaves. The trunk is a dense bundle of wood grains, which act like a bunch of tiny straws to achieve this effect. Like a plastic straw or a piece of paper, if you were to stand them up and slice down with a knife from the top (don’t do this - just imagine), it’d be an effortlessly smooth cut.
In the same way, when a wood surface is made out of a bunch of end grain slices, glued together… you get the same smooth cuts. And, unlike paper or straws, because there are thousands of tiny grains smooshed together, they support each other, pushing the gouges from your knife back together. It all results in a surface with fewer knife marks, smoother cutting action, and greater durability. Additionally, wood, particularly in this orientation, exhibits anti-microbial properties where these cooperating grains are hostile toward the growth of bacteria and germs. With a little help from good cleaning practices and suitable oil & wax finishing, the result is a superior cutting board that can last decades or even a lifetime.
Finally, End Grain boards (done right) can look really cool; either in expressing the natural character of the wood in a unique way (that’s what we do) or offering the possibility of assembling them into crazy, often-beautiful and sometimes mind-bending patterns.
Yes, you can. And many people do. When you pick up a cheap cutting board (we don’t recommend them for other reasons), almost all of them are constructed with the Long Grain as the surface. And you can indeed cut on them. You’ll just end up with a mutually negative relationship; with your board dulling your knife and your knife beating up your board with cut marks that don’t heal. Also, it just feels less comfortable on your wrist. And here at Wooded Carving Company, we’re always thinking about satisfying your wrist with good wood!
These are just different words for Long Grain boards that some use to describe their work, relative to the hardwood planks they used to make them. You’ll often see boards described as Edge Grain appearing as a larger amount of narrow strips, where Face Grain are fewer, wider strips. But functionally, they’re the same grain orientation as they came from the tree trunk, thus they’re all going to exhibit the same cutting characteristics. One is not better than the other, and neither are as good for cutting as End Grain!
Okay, let’s re-imagine the 2x4 stud again. Lets say you wanted to build a deck. Would it be easier to chop a bunch of studs up into dozens of pieces each and glue the hundreds of pieces together to make a deck (end grain), or just assemble a row of your long 2x4 studs next to each other (long grain)?
Making an end-grain cutting board is just more complicated and laborious. It takes about three times the labor, has multiple opportunities for error and failure, consumes more supplies, and is harder to sand and finish. So, that’s why they’re often at least double the price. It’s also why you won’t see a whole lot of discount stores or cheap imports of End Grain boards… and almost certainly not good ones.
It’s pretty simple. When we say we’re selling you a cutting board, it’s End Grain, period.
We wouldn’t call anything else a cutting board. End Grain boards are at the center of the Wooded universe. We are passionate about assembling End Grain boards with the artistic spirit of our Cape Cod roots; bespoke, natural, and respectful of the natural grains of the tree that was sacrificed for a beautiful cutting surface you can use for many years.
That said, Long Grain boards have their place, and we love making those too. We call them Charc Boards, and they are fantastic for putting together a beautiful charcuterie arrangement, or using as a serving tray surface for the center of your table. And of course, you could use these for the occasional cutting (often with dull knives for things like cheese or butter).
You may notice at Wooded, we sell our pieces with feet included, and at no extra cost. You can choose to remove them, but we certainly prefer boards with feet and think you’ll have a better experience with them. Why, you ask?
One of the easiest ways to end up with a board that rocks from side-to-side is a lack of airflow as your board sits on a surface — usually a kitchen countertop, and we all know how those get; wet with splashes from the sink, spills and juices from cooking. Wood, even well-sealed, acts as a thick and slow-absorbing sponge, and when part of its surface (the bottom) is absorbing liquid, and the other part is getting airflow, it will expand and contract unevenly. That unevenness creates a “warped” condition which causes that board to be uneven, giving that unsatisfying wobbling sensation as you use it.
Feet simply give the bottom of the wood a fraction of an inch above the countertop to keep the air flowing, evenly around all sides of the board, making it a lot less likely for the board to become deformed.
Have you ever noticed the doors in your home getting easier or harder to close as the seasons progress? That’s because the wood (or wood-like material) is absorbing the humidity in the air, expanding as warmer, more humid air persists, and contracting as the seasons get colder and drier. Your wooden kitchen tools, like cutting boards, experience the same variations, which can cause (typically minor) warps and unevenness as years progress. It’s also inevitable that they directly experience moisture as you chop on them, wash them off, and well… use them!
We like boards with feet because as these natural progressions take place, they offer some buffer, with a small rubber surface that stays a lot steadier than the wood buffering these natural variations. Typically, no adjustments are needed, but if your board gets noticeably uneven, you can tweak on the screws to compress or expand the feet and counteract the natural variations of the wood over time.
We use simple rubber feet with elegant black screws. We use quality screws and carefully drill a small hole for each of them to keep the wood from splitting or cracking. They add about half an inch to the height of the board, typically not enough to make a major impact to the height (thickness) of the board.
We see two reasons why you might want to miss out on the footy goodness.
First, perhaps you want your board to be “reversible”, with both sides available to use. That’s certainly possible even with the feet on the board, but you do lose the four corners where the feet are installed, reducing the usable area somewhat (depending on the size of your board). Again, we let you decide, but for most of you, we think you’ll still have plenty of inches to play with.
The other reason is perhaps the human behind the board. If you are on the petite side and want to squeeze every inch of that thick block without it getting too tall and hard to use… it might be wise to skip the feet.
In summary, we love our feet here at Wooded. They keep the underside of our wood pieces dry and prevent swelling over time. Feet do make our boards a little thicker and you may want to spare the extra height the feet add, and the space they take up on the bottom side of the boards. If that’s you, just tick the “No Feet” box or drop us a note to skip the feet, and we’ll oblige!
Carving brisket or turkey? A juice groove can catch the drips — but for everyday prep, it might just cramp your style. Wooded explains why.
