Can anyone direct me to plans for a butcher block to use as a kitchen island? I envision something around 2 ft by 3 ft, end grain, and heavy. Any good suggestions on where to order rough, utility grade hardrock maple for such a project at affordable prices? I have the tools to machine it, but maple is difficult to find along the gulf coast.
Thanks, and Happy Holidays!
Woody
Replies
Since you are in the gulf coast area, have you considered using Cypress?
My handbook describes it as moderately hard, moderately strong, and moderately heavy at 32 lbs / cu ft at 12 percent moisture content.
Heartwood varies in color from light yellowish brown to dark brownish red, brown, or chocolate.
I have never used cypress because we never had it in Detroit or in Dallas. But I have used cherry, walnut and white ash for small butcher blocks and for futniture.
Good luck in your woodworking.
Dull, thanks for the suggestion. You are right, lots of cypress around here, although I don't know that it has the density that I would like to see. But, I've not ruled out anything at this point. Thanks!Woody
Merry Christmas, HWG.
I designed mine myself - it's sugar maple construction, measuring 22" by 48" with the top 3" think. It on caster wheels, with a knife storage on one end, and a waste pit on the other. There are two drawers one for general utinsils, the second is only 2" deep for sharp knifes - these are held in place by a horizonial 18" magnet. The lower shelf was dsigned to hold a wine rack in the future, and is trimmed out with a cup railing.
Gary, sounds great. Got a pic of it that you can post?Woody
Houston Hardwoods should be able to help you out if you don't mind the drive. They might even ship it to you via a phone order. Tom
My New Orleans source floated away in Katrina, I might have to try Houston. But, the key word is "affordable" -- these northern woods are usually pricey around here, as our southern woods are up north.Woody
I just finished a 30"x60" kitchen island with an end grain butcher block top. I made the top out of 2.5"x3/4" hard maple blocks glued up and attached to two 3/4" sheets of plywood. Around the perimeter of the glue up I attached a 2" wide band of 4" blocks of hickory to set off the maple and cover the plywood. Looks great. I cut the maple blocks into four different widths which added up to the 26" width of the inner section. By using different widths I was able to offset the glue seams on each row of blocks for strength and to keep any glue lines from running more than a single row of blocks. Whole thing took 2 months of weekends and nights, a gallon of Titebond III, and a bunch of smoothing using a power planer, belt sander and scraper. No mechanical fastener in the whole top. Weight alone keeps it on the island. Looks great after soaking up 2 pints of food grade mineral oil I got at the pharmacy.
P3, sounds a lot like what I have in mind, although a bit larger. I might use your suggested technique. Do you have a pic that you can post? Thanks!Woody
Here's a photo of the island top. To save time and make the glueing up easier, I would thickness planed two boards, glued them together, and cut them to width. I did this for each of the different widths I needed to make up the 26" inner area and cut them into 2.5" thick blocks. I found that widths of 7", 6", 5", and 4" made a good dispersal of sizes to prevent any straight lines that would catch the eye. I then glued up these blocks in this order for the first row; 7-5-4-6-4 ; and this order for the second row; 4-6-4-5-7, and repeated the process as I glued up the next rows. This alternating the width of the blocks prevented and glue seams from running more than one set of blocks as you can see from the photo. The hickory border I glued on after I had the center squared and leveled.
Driver,
Looks great, and that hickory should be an excellent choice for the blocks. Thanks for posting this.Woody
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