So a bit further to my earlier post on the “toxicity” of walnut, I doubt that we woodworkers are not using it, certainly not when used in furniture. What I would like to get a sense of is how much of it are you using in your segmented bowls, cutting boards, and other objects that will be used with food? Thanks for your input.
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Ironically,I have a request for a cutting board from a neighbor who helps the odd time and proposed using some walnut .I am now re thinking that idea
This toxicity fear of wood is really getting out of hand, I am seing it now on other forums . Reminds me of the ban of absinthe due to the botanical content causing things to get out of hand, anything 150 proof taken in large quantities will cause hallucinations.
It's a cutting board, you're not gonna eat it. I would happily cut up food on a solid walnut plank.
I've made and used walnut for cutting boards, and use walnut oil on kitchen utensils. Likely to do so in the future as well.
For the ultimate in cutting board resilience, even to savagely serrated breadknives and bone-slicing cleavers, iroko is yer tree. It too has a reputation for generating naughty dust that may rot your nasals but an end-grain-up cutting board we have, that I made 13 years ago from leftover kitchen worktop bits, is almost unmarked, despite all the knifings its had from vigorous slicers and choppers of this and that. And, so far, no terrible sickness that smells of iroko. (Mind, my hair does seem to have left the top of me heed).
Walnut is a softy in comparison - almost a punk!
PS You could use the walnut to clad the periphery of the iroko oblong if that walnut has nice lookin' grain.
Lataxe
Resistance to cuts is one quality for a cutting board but not wearing the knives edge is also a feature in which iroko performs poorly , end grain sugar maple butcher blocks are the reference this side of the pond.
Yes, that makes sense. A pro chef would be more concerned about dulling her expensive knives than the board, if it's really used that way. Mostly I see people use the term cutting boards, when they really mean serving boards or something where appearance is important.
Troo, troo - but we be woodworkers and can sharpen anything to a wonderful edge in no time! Currently I have many & various means of doing so, with associated gubbins. Many. And various. :-)
Mind, that iroko certainly lets one know which knife-steels are good and which a bit feeble ..... . With walnut, it's easy to get a slice of it mixed up with the bread slices. (Jes kiddin').
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Iroko is a surprisingly versatile wood, coming in all sorts of colours, grain arrangements, densities, fine/coarse surfaces and ..... smells. I haven't found a use for the stuff that's very oily and smells quite strongly of fish, apart from as a weatherproof garden table right at the bottom of the garden, next to the manure heap.
Lataxe
FWW linked a great video about the best cutting boards for chefs. OTTOMH it was more about the size than the wood.
As I commented in the past, I have done extensive reading about walnut and would not hesitate to use it in any product intended for food use. It's fine.
I don't use a lot of it because getting good quality walnut is very hard right now and the price for bad walnut is the same. I'm using up all that Ash that the borer has killed :-(