How to Build a Wooden Butcher Block

Few objects in the kitchen evoke a sense of permanence, craftsmanship and functionality better than a butcher block. Whether you’re talking about a countertop, a table or a cutting board, a butcher block is attractive and durable. With a little attention to detail, you can make your own. Although the work will go easier if you’ve got some sophisticated shop tools, you don’t need anything too fancy to do the job.

Hard, tight-grained wood
Table saw
Planer/jointer
Food-safe wood glue
Wood clamps
Scrap cauls
Wax paper
Drum, belt, or orbital sander
Mineral oil, natural wax, or food-grade varnish

Instructions

- 1
  
  Rip cutting with a table saw is efficient, but make sure to observe safety precautions.
  
  Rip cut the wood to your desired thickness. You’ll be using a table saw to cut along the long dimension of the board, and the width of your cut will end up being the nominal thickness of your butcher block.
- 2
  Run the cut pieces through your planer. This will smooth out the surfaces that will be glued together so they will mate without gaps. These are the “face grain” sides of your lumber — what started out as the top and bottom sides of your board.
- 3
  Lay out your boards. If you’re making a large surface, larger than 2-by-4 feet, for example, then you’ll want to build it up in sections. Traditionally, large butcher block surfaces are built with random length pieces butted against each other, so this is where you make certain the fit and appearance are good.
- 4
  Rotate all the pieces by 90 degrees so that the face grain, mating surfaces are exposed. Spread a layer of FDA-approved glue to cover the exposed mating surfaces, and rotate the pieces and lay them up together. The more tightly grained side grain surfaces will now be the top and bottom.
- 5
  
  Good quality wood clamps will make the gluing an easy task.
  
  Line up the boards and clamp them together. Use a leftover straight piece of board to line up an edge of your butcher block, and clamp some other leftovers to keep the surface flat while gluing. Put wax paper on surfaces that will contact the glued block so they don’t end up getting glued together.
- 6
  Clean up the glue that has been pushed out from the joints. If you do this immediately, you can use a clean, damp cloth. If you wait more than a minute or two it will be too messy. An alternative it so wait 30 minutes for the glue to soft set, then scrape it away. You can also just wait for the drying to be complete and then scrape it away.
- 7
  Wait 24 hours and remove the clamps. Scrape away any excess glue.
- 8
  Run the block through the drum sander. If you don’t have a drum sander, you can use a belt sander, a random orbital sander or a simple hand block sander. You'll eventually want to work it to at least a 220-grit surface, with the last stages done by hand.
- 9
  Apply mineral oil, natural wax or food-grade varnish.

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