How to Repair Your Cutting Board

Cutting Board with Knife and vegetables — Finished Cutting Board

We all have one (or two or three) and they eventually just wear out split, crack, and fall apart. Well let me show you how to Repair Your Cutting Board to almost new condition and maybe even improve it a bit.

Tools

You will need a table saw with a really good blade. I suggest a Forrest Woodworker II (link below). I’ve tried many sawblades including DeWalt, Diablo, Freud, etc. and Forrest WWII is by far the best. You will also need to ensure that your blade is 90 degrees to your table. Precision is needed for a tight glue joint. So if you don’t already have it get a Wixey Digital Angle Meter. It will save you a ton of time and improve your joinery. Last, an orbital sander and sandpaper 80, 120, and 220 grit.

Materials

Unless you are going to slot in a few accent pieces to dress up your board or you are replacing a section, you don’t need materials other than Titebond III Waterproof Glue, Food Grade Mineral Oil, and Organic Beeswax.

Fixing the Board

This cutting board like many is a commercial European Beech. And it is our everyday board for almost everything – not too big, not too small and it has been in the kitchen for a long time. Even with hand washing and drying the glue joints have failed.

To start fixing this board I installed my Forrest Woodworker II Blade. I save this one for glue joint cut or where I really need precision cuts. Once the blade is installed and set to the correct height (3 teeth exposed above the top surface of the work piece is how I do it) I line the failed glue line with the center of the saw blade. This will take out the old wood and glue in one pass and give me a nice smooth finish on both parts. Bring the fence to the part and lock it in place and we are good to cut out the bad joint. I had to do the again to the other side too.

Author cutting wood on Table Sae — Finished Cutting Board

With both joints clean and clear, I cut two ¼” Walnut filler pieces to add to the joints as accents. I had these in the scrap bin and why I save a lot of “scrap.” Then dry fit the assembly. Folks ALWAYS dry fit.

The Next step was glue up using Titebond III. I used plenty of glue to ensure there were not dry spots. As a matter of fact, I wanted squeeze out along the entire joint to fill any openings.

Once clamped and dried, I use a card scraper (check out my video) to remove the excess glue. Using a card scraper to clean off excess glue saves the sandpaper from clogging and cuts down on sanding. (Wahoo – I hate sanding)

Sanding

Last step here is sanding. I usually start a 220 grit but on this board I want to remove most of the knife marks, scoring, and checking caused by years of chopping. To do that I started with 80 grit in my orbital sander. It still took a bit to get most of the scoring out. Then on the 120/220 grit. I paid close attention to the end grain.

After all this work (not really THAT much) it’s time oil/condition/seal it. As this board is old and has been oiled before I just cut straight to the conditioning. I make my own board conditioner using Food Grade Mineral Oil and Beeswax. Once gently heated together and mixed it forms a creamy paste that helps seal the board (How To for this is in the video). It’s easy to apply – just like waxing a car. Rub it in well then wipe off any excess.