Caring for your cutting board

There’s nothing like preparing the first meal on your brand new cutting board. The first cut is a bit of exhilaration and hesitation as you draw your knife and potentially mar the beautifully smooth surface of your board. However, each knife strokes sliced across the grain probably equals a future fond memory of creating a delicious meal. At Real Good Goods, we love seeing well-used and well-loved butcher blocks, cheese boards, cutting boards, and the many other names given to the wooden unsung heroes of our kitchens, and we want to help ensure they get the very best care we feel they deserve.

While cooking and eating

While cooking you may not have a chance to wash all of your dishes before serving your meal. Before you sit down to eat, be sure you haven’t left liquid sitting on your cutting board, especially if you just sliced something juicy like tomatoes. Just give it a quick tilt in your sink and slide your knife at a 30-degree angle to swipe any liquid off the surface. Return it to the counter — never put your cutting board in the sink or in standing water. Now go enjoy your meal!

Washing your cutting board

Wash your board with mild soap and water, and stand upright on a rack or dry towel. Allow it to dry completely, probably overnight, before storing or oiling.

Again, never allow your board to soak in water. Pigment from fruit and vegetable may stain the surface. Sometimes this is temporary and it will disappear after a few washing. Soaking the board will not help, and will cause the wood to swell and deteriorate. Minor restoration may be necessary to remove stubborn stains.

Waxing your cutting board

To maintain its beauty and durability we recommend using our Organic Beeswax Board Butter to condition your cutting board. It’s also great for any wooden utensils, spoon rests, cookware, and wooden-handled knives. If you cook regularly, waxing at least once a month is best and only takes a few minutes.

Place a generous amount of board butter on your board. Spread into a thin layer across the entire surface, including the edges. Buff into the grain with a clean, lint-free cloth, and allow it to absorb overnight. Remove any excess with a clean cloth in the morning. If your board hasn’t been conditioned in a while, it may be very thirsty. Give it another coat if the surface still feels dry.

Our Organic Beeswax Board Butter is food-safe, non-toxic, and contains no solvents. Cloths used for waxing may be used multiple times if stored in a clean area, and can be safely disposed of as household waste later on.

Restorations

Cutting boards with deep cuts, chips, stains, or water damage may need some extra care by way of restoration. The resurfacing process for this can involve using a block plane or well-sharpened card scraper to remove the damaged layer. Lighter damage can be sanded with a rough (60-grit) sandpaper. To restore the like-new surface, continue sanding with progressively higher grit sand paper — first 120-grit, then 220-grit, and finally finish with 400-grit.

Our method of restoration at this stage is to bathe the board in oil 2-3 times. There are various types of appropriate and food-safe oils. We have researched and tested many of them and prefer using non-GMO Walnut Oil. Let the board stand upright overnight (8-12 hours) between each bath. The last step is to give it a coat of board butter following the waxing instructions above.

If restoring a cutting board sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is! If you’re interested in having your cutting board restored, we can help. Contact us and we can assess the damage from a photo and provide you a quote in 24 hours. We have the tools and experience to get your cutting looking new again!

Salvaging Nature: Drying green wood at home

That backbone of Real Good Goods is to reduce and repurpose waste. Since humans produce a lot of waste, especially in densely populated areas like New York City, there's is hardly ever a shortage of opportunities to be creative. After the holiday and stormy weather however, we found new opportunities.

When working with live or green wood, it's necessary to let the wood dry before building anything with it. Green wood contains more moisture than seasoned wood, which has been dried through passage of time or by forced drying in kilns. It's considered to have 100% moisture content relative to air-dried or seasoned wood which is considered to have 20%. Though green lumber is more commonly used in arid regions of the United States, such as Arizona and parts of California, because the wood will dry more quickly. Damper regions often require kiln-dried wood, which must have a moisture content of 19% or less. Depending on thickness, it can take a considerable amount of time before it reaches that recommend moisture content when you don't have a kiln available. 

These Sycamore branch have been stored and air-drying for two years. Smaller pieces can be cut and dried in a household oven.

Drying wood in your home oven

1. Set your oven racks so one is in the bottom and another is in the center. Place a large sheet pan on the bottom oven rack or line it with foil.

2. Set the oven as close to 218° F as possible.

3. If available, turn on the convection fan. Check the oven thermometer after 15 minutes have passed. Adjust the oven settings until the internal temperature reading is between 210° and 225° F.

4. Place your wood on the center rack without letting them touch. Set smaller wood pieces perpendicular to the wires of the oven rack so they do not fall through. Dry the wood for 1 hour.
   

5. While wearing heat-resistant gloves, remove a 2-3 pieces a varying sizes. Press the two metal contact points of the moisture meter to the surface of the wood to test. Return the wood to the oven if the desired moisture-level has not been reached.
   

6. Test again every 15 minutes until moisture content reads 20% or less. Remove wood and place on a wire cooling rack in a dry place.

sold out

Natural Tree Wall Hanging

$150.00

sold out

Holiday Ornaments

from $25.00

Restoring a butcher block

Think twice before tossing out a cutting board because of a few scratches consider the extent of its damage and having it restored. With a few hand tools, oil, and board wax you could have you board looking like new again. We'll walk you through the process of how we restore cutting boards at Real Good Goods.

First, we inspect the damage. This board has mostly a dry cracked surface, a few deep gashes, and burn marks on one side. Deep gashes and burns cause deeper damage that won't vanish completely, but afterward there will simply be a couple scars of well used board.

Next, we use a card scraper to being the resurfacing. Scrapers are inexpensive to buy and invaluable to own. Just be sure to keep them sharp! This will be the fastest and cleanest way to remove the surface damage. Otherwise begin sanding with coarse 60 grit sandpaper or a industrial strength scouring pad.

The scraper will get the surface to a very smooth surface, and you may stop resurfacing here if you wish. Otherwise, or if you are working with only sandpaper, move on to 220 grit and continue sanding. Finish with 400 grit for the final pass with your sander.

Finally we need to rehydrate and build a layer of protection for the wood from moisture. Bathe the cutting board generously on all side with mineral oil. Let the wood rest between baths for 12-24 hours to fully absorb. 24-hours after the 3rd bath, wax the board. We make our own Organic Beeswax Board Butter, and it's available in our shop. It's important to use organic beeswax for you cookware to ensure there are no pesticide or chemical fertilizers that can leach into your food. Spread a generous amount of board butter across the entire surface of your cutting board. Buff into the grain with a clean, lint-free cloth, and allow to absorb overnight. Remove any excess with a clean cloth in the morning. Repeat as needed.

You're ready to get cooking! Wash your board with mild soap and water, after using and allow to dry completely before storing or oiling. Never allow your board to soak in water or moisture to pool on the surface for long periods of time. When the coating wears off, reapply the board butter again on a completely dry board.

How our device stands are born

We thought it would be nice to share a look at how we cut the blanks for our device stands. 

Measure Twice, Cut Once

First, we mark out each stand's full depth along the lumber. Then, we mark out the portion that will be removed at half-depth to hold the device.

Make the first cut

Next, we say a few words and start making a few shallow passes through the wood with a circular saw before chiseling out the leftovers. A router with a dado blade will work well for this as well.

Ready for clean up and final cut

A few passes with the rasp will clean up stragglers. Now we can check our lines one last time and cutting each stand off the board.

Roughed Blanks

These rough cuts are ready for two rounds of sanding, oiling, and finishing.

Once the blanks are cut they are ready for the a 2-3 step sanding process to clean up the surface, edges and to soften the existing imperfections from using reclaimed wood — chips, cracks, nail and screw holes, etc. Before the final sanding we drill and carve out the hole for the charger and cable run.

Sanding by hand

Good quality sandpaper is a worthwhile investment. You will wind up wasting more paper and energy with cheap stuff that clogs, tears, and wears out fast.

Our First Batch

This was our first batch of blanks we experimented with. The wood was about to be tossed out by a recording studio . We offered them for sale to coworkers and friends. The success of that and making something that people found valuable from wood that would have been thrown away, encouraged us as we considered this as a bigger project.

Oiling Up

This stand is getting it's first bath of mineral oil before getting sealed with our Organic Beeswax Board Butter.

Once all sides are smoothed out, we bathe the wood in mineral oil and let it rest for a day. Then we seal it with our homemade recipe of Organic Beeswax Board Butter.

---