What Wood Is Best for a Cutting Board? Walnut, Maple, Cherry & More
Walk into a woodworking shop and you'll quickly realize that not every board is the same. The wood species matters. It affects how the board feels to cut on, how it holds up over time, how it looks on your counter, and how easy it is to maintain. Here's a breakdown of the woods we use at Wet Nose Woodworks and what makes each one a great choice for a cutting board.
What Makes a Wood Good for Cutting Boards?
Before digging into specific species, it helps to know what you're looking for:
- Hardness (Janka rating): Harder woods resist cuts and scratches better, but very hard woods can dull your knives faster. You want something in the middle.
- Grain tightness: Tighter grain means fewer pores for bacteria and moisture to settle into. Open-grain woods like oak are not ideal for food surfaces for this reason.
- Food safety: The wood itself needs to be non-toxic and safe for food contact.
- Stability: Wood that moves a lot with humidity changes will warp or crack over time. Stable species hold their shape.
Walnut
Walnut is the most popular premium cutting board wood, and for good reason. It sits right in the sweet spot of the Janka hardness scale: hard enough to be durable, soft enough to be gentle on knife edges. The dark, rich color with its natural figuring makes walnut boards genuinely beautiful objects on their own.
Janka hardness: 1,010 lbf
Color: Deep chocolate brown, often with lighter streaks
Best for: Daily use cutting boards, serving boards, high-end gift pieces
Maintenance: Regular oiling keeps walnut from drying and lightening over time.
Many of our Artisan Boards feature walnut as the primary wood, often paired with lighter species like maple or cherry for visual contrast.
Maple (Hard Maple)
Hard maple is the workhorse of cutting board woods. It's one of the hardest domestic hardwoods, extremely tight-grained, and takes a beautiful smooth surface. Maple is the classic choice for professional kitchen cutting boards because of its durability and neutral appearance.
Janka hardness: 1,450 lbf
Color: Creamy white to pale golden, sometimes with fine mineral streaks
Best for: Heavy-duty cutting surfaces, end grain boards
Maintenance: Relatively forgiving. Maple's tight grain makes it easy to clean and resistant to staining.
Maple is a go-to accent wood in our chevron and end grain boards, where its light color creates striking contrast against darker species.
Cherry
Cherry is a favorite for woodworkers and gift buyers alike. It starts as a warm pinkish-tan and deepens into a rich reddish-brown as it ages with light exposure. Over time, a cherry board actually gets more beautiful. It's slightly softer than maple but still well within the ideal range for cutting boards.
Janka hardness: 950 lbf
Color: Light pink-tan when new, aging to deep reddish-brown
Best for: Serving boards, heirloom pieces, boards you want to look better with age
Maintenance: Easy. Cherry responds well to mineral oil and develops a beautiful patina with regular use.
Cherry is a popular choice in our multi-wood artisan boards, often used alongside walnut to create warm, jewel-toned combinations.
Padauk
Padauk is an accent wood more than a primary cutting board material, but it makes a dramatic visual impact. Freshly cut padauk is a vivid orange-red that mellows to a deep reddish-brown over time. It's also harder than walnut and very stable, making it a reliable choice in multi-wood boards.
Janka hardness: 1,725 lbf
Color: Bright orange-red when new, aging to a rich brown-red
Best for: Accent strips and visual contrast in multi-wood designs
Note: Padauk is food-safe when properly finished.
You'll find padauk in several of our walnut and padauk boards, where it adds a bold pop of color against the darker walnut.
Sapele
Sapele is an African hardwood with a distinctive ribbon or interlocked grain pattern that creates a shimmering, almost three-dimensional look. It's warm in color, sits between walnut and maple in hardness, and is very stable. Sapele has become a favorite in our shop for its unique visual character.
Janka hardness: 1,410 lbf
Color: Warm reddish-brown with a distinctive striped ribbon figure
Best for: Show-stopping boards where the grain itself is part of the design
Maintenance: Similar to walnut. Regular oiling keeps the ribbon figure looking its best.
Our Artisan Board #27 features a chevron pattern in sapele and maple that showcases both woods beautifully.
Which Wood Should You Choose?
If you want the most versatile, all-around cutting board: go with hard maple for a workhorse, or walnut if you want something beautiful enough to leave on the counter.
If you want something that gets better with age and has warm color: cherry is a wonderful choice.
If you want a true statement piece, look for a board that combines multiple species. Multi-wood end grain boards pairing walnut, maple, cherry, padauk, or sapele are the pinnacle of both function and beauty.
End Grain vs. Edge Grain: Does the Cut Direction Change Things?
The wood species matters, but so does how it's cut and oriented in the board. End grain boards are gentler on knife edges and self-healing over time. Edge grain boards are thinner and lighter. Check out our end grain vs. edge grain post for a deeper look at that distinction.
Browse Our Boards
Every Wet Nose Woodworks board is handcrafted from the species described above, finished with food-safe oil, and built to last. Whether you're shopping for your own kitchen or looking for a gift that will be genuinely used and appreciated, our artisan boards are made with care and attention to wood selection. Shop our walnut and padauk paddle board or browse the full collection here.