What is a butcher block kitchen table?
The Butcher Block Kitchen Table has a butcher block top that is ideal for heavy chopping. It was originally a surface on which butchers might split large portions of meat into cuts using cleavers and other knives (for this reason the name). They would utilize a thick piece of wood like maple, walnut, cherry, and oak due to their sturdiness, with the grain pointing upwards. This made it more durable so that it might stand up to all the hacking in time.
Lots of early butchers utilized tree rounds for their blocks, but woodworkers discovered methods to increase the resilience of the wood and make a more sanitary surface area. Nowadays, butcher blocks use directly, thick cuts of wood adhered into pieces to provide the butcher, house, or chef cook a strong surface on which to work. Some butcher blocks were so long-lasting that a butcher could utilize them for their whole career; when the surface did wear down, they might take it to a woodworker for a refinishing, making it good as new!
Add decor to your kitchen with a butcher block kitchen table
Butcher blocks have been used in butcher shops for centuries and still are in several European nations and across America. Increasingly, though, you can find them in residential kitchens as an option to stone and laminate countertops.
Butcher blocks can add a refreshing accent to your kitchen area. There are different sorts of butcher blocks you can select from. Here we compiled some of the best from various sources. But, first, let us go through with them.
Which type of wood for a butcher block?
Any wood like teak, birch, maple, and walnut can be used. However, maple is the most common because of its hardness and clear grain. It’s also made out of red and cherry oak wood.
Butcher block is also readily available in a variety of wood types. One of the most typical species made use of are American Maple and also Cherry. Periodically, teak wood, liptus, as well as walnut are likewise utilized in manufacturing. Liptus, in recent times, has actually ended up being increasingly more prominent as it is more renewable energy and consequently more suited to the eco-aware.
What type of butcher block can you find?
End grain
End grain butcher block is a “real” butcher block made in the antique method to withstand cutting, dicing, and reducing.
It is one of the most flexible of any reducing or chopping board. End grain blocks are made by using glue and staples to incorporate many timber items with the grain of the timber facing up. They need even more jobs to produce, are much more resilient, and are often made use of expert & business cooking areas, cutting boards, cutting blocks, and household cooking area islands.
This sort of butcher block has a checkerboard appearance. If you have just one board in your kitchen area, this is the most effective choice all over.
Edge grain (lengthy grain)
Edge grain, or long-grain butcher block, is used to make the majority of reducing boards sold throughout North America today.
Side grain butcher block is created by gluing lots of items of timber together. The wood grain in long-grain or edge grain obstructs runs longways or straight with the job surface area. Therefore, the edge grain is shown up, as well as this is the hardest portion of a difficult maple log or board, making it ideal for light dicing and cutting.
This kind of butcher block is less complicated to produce, is more budget-friendly, and is utilized in countertops, tabletops, workbenches, and 95% of the products referred to as butcher block. Liptus, nevertheless, is not as difficult as maple and also does have a distinctly different color.
Butcher Block Finishes
Varnished
Initially, butcher blocks were not completed in all. Butchers would certainly sand as well as oil their chopping blocks to maintain them from drying out. Today, nonetheless, you can enjoy the beauty of a butcher block countertop or island for your kitchen area without the demand to preserve it regularly. Numerous butcher block products are readily available with a polyurethane finish or surface. This process of coating the wood is in some cases referred to as a “varnique” surface.
Varnished butcher blocks supply an extra finished or polished look. However, in addition to the plenty of benefits to a varnished butcher block, there are a couple of disadvantages.
Some things to consider with varnique butcher blocks?
- Hard to cut
- prone to scratching
- and may need refinishing over time
What are the advantages of a varnique coating?
- Longer surface area life than numerous other countertop products
- A lot more finished/aesthetically pleasing look
- Immune to stains
Oil-finished
Butcher blocks in their natural state are thought about as the only option by several expert chefs.
The appearance is a lot more rustic, and the usages for an oil-ended-up butcher block are extra flexible. However, if the planned use of the surface is to prepare and reduce food, an oil surface is the only alternative, as varnished tops can not be cut on.
There are both advantages and disadvantages to an oil-finished butcher block.
Some points to take into consideration with oil-finished surface areas?
- Requires normal oiling
- Prone to discoloring
What are the benefits of oil-finished butcher blocks?
- The unfinished wood enables you to prepare & cut food directly on the surface.
- Incredibly long-lasting job surface
- Oiled blocks are normally resistant to germs
- Longer surface area life than several other counters leading products
How useful is a Butcher block table?
When compared to other tabletops, butcher block kitchen tables keep blades sharp. During chopping, its surface makes no noise.
How can you create your own Butcher Block Kitchen Table?
We can complete making a butcher block tabletop out of cherry wood that came out of Mr. PoP’s mom’s and dads’ barn. It is 3′ x 6,’ and we needed to assemble it in sections, then used a 13″ delta planer to get those all to the very same height and put those together as thoroughly as possible.
Some thoughts of preparation
- It would help if you REALLY had solid clamps and a great deal of them, depending on the size of the piece. But, unfortunately, we had clamps of differing quality, and it actually was a case of the larger the much better.
- You will require a LOT of patience (and sandpaper and possibly a hand planer in addition to a tabletop planer), particularly if your wood is not perfectly uniform.
If you’re too checked to use for whoever had actually purchased them, you can make it out of some douglas fir boards that had been discarded. By cutting them into strips, you can have the ability to dispose of the checked parts.
If you are making an end grain butcher block, you have to cut those strips to the depth of your block and additional sanding/planing. Then, glue together, making larger and bigger areas. In our case, our planar can only handle 12″ things, so we had to make three finished sections 12″ broad and then glue them together at the last assembly.
You will also need a planar to do a cool task. However, I expect one could get by with a sander and great deals of sandpaper.
Beginning with quite imperfect (albeit totally free and really nostalgic) wood meant this could take an extra very long time. However, the completion result looks definitely wonderful, and we can have it for decades to use. Don’t forget to include the legs for it.
Is the butcher block kitchen table require maintenance?
Yes, it requires more care than a regular tabletop. However, it can endure a long time if properly maintained once a year. It’s effortless to do that, and you only need to do the following:
- Remove whatever from your countertops.
- Wipe them with a moist cloth.
- Scrape the surface area with a dough scraper to get rid of anything stuck on the surface.
- Scrape light surface area discolorations away with a razor blade.
- Sand much deeper spots with 180 then 220 grit sandpaper. (note your sanded location will lighten).
- Clean counter tidy with a fabric.
- Run your hand over the counter to ensure it’s totally without grit or guck.
- Put mineral oil directly onto the counter and rub it around the entire surface with a lint totally free cloth.
- Allow the mineral oil to soak up. This could take just an hour or as much as overnight.
- Clean the counters again to remove any recurring oil.
