What is the end grain of wood?

Question

What is the end grain of wood and why is it used for cutting boards? I have seen some cutting boards that professional chefs use and they are made of end grain, but I can not find out what it is?

How do you cut wood ao that only have the end grain?

Answer 1

End grain is the grain at the end of a cut pc of wood. In general it has an arched grain pattern and is the strongest grain direction and can take allot of abuse. The cutting board and butchers blocks used by chefs and butchers also are end grained Hard Maple. Maple is used by chefs because it is a closed grain hardwood and is nontoxic.. Most likely made by Michigan Maple Block Company. Starting thickness for these are 3" in maple. Starting cost for small pcs could be as much as $300.00. Also there is a new environmentally friendly product Called Bamboo made by Terragrin. All end grain cutting boards are made of 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 3" Pcs glued together to the width and length needed. All these items are sold at allot of local lumber yards.

Answer 2

On a piece of lumber, it is the smallest face, the end of the board. The wood would have to be laminated. The end grain is the hardest part of the cut board. If you can imagine the end pieces of lumber, a cutting board would have to be made out of a wide piece of lumber to get any size out of the end grain. (Does this make sense?)

Answer 3

The "end grain" of wood is a cross section of the wood, and is harder than the side grain, therefore, pieces of end grain are glued together and laminated to provide a harder cutting surface.