End Grain Wood Video Transcript: End Grain Wood Countertops

Welcome to our end grain wood video! Richard Brooks will discuss the wood species and construction of classic butcher block cutting boards and countertops.

In this segment we talk about end grain wood countertops. Visually we see a checkerboard pattern in which the blocks flow in a straight row and parallel to each other. Another way to display end grain is to offset the block pattern.

End grain is designed by cutting the wood first in an edge grain fashion. The edge grain wood blank is then flipped upward and cut further into slices which may be re-glued to form the block pattern. Again, end grain countertops show the ends of the wood facing upwards. We make lots and lots of these countertops and they continue to hold up.

There are various wood combinations:
• Burmese teak
This is traditional butcher block material on which famous television chefs chop away on. The end grain construction allows the blade of the knife into the wood without dulling the steel. The maintenance is simply an occasional coat of oil. They go for decades and decades. Again, you need to be aware that it will show a pattern of use from chopping.

• Maple wood
Maple is a very traditional butcher-block wood. You’ve probably all seen these around with offset block patterns.

• Bamboo wood
Bamboo is an exciting green end grain material. Since the bamboo plant wall is about a quarter inch thick, the pattern will be tighter with small columns of tiny rectangular boxes. Another type of bamboo is a caramelized version. When bamboo bakes in an oven, it caramelizes the sugars, turning it into a beautiful, natural brown.

• Ash and Wenge butcher block
This pattern is point to point, which means all the points line up like a checkerboard. The woods are gorgeous together. The blocks are three inches high. We use these for large countertops to creative a dramatic effect in the center of a room.

• Cherry and Tigerwood
These are two beautiful, deep colored red woods shown here together.

• Walnut and Maple
Picture the corner of an island or the corner of a table. Specifically, this three-inch walnut-maple combination is incredibly beautiful. We have done many kitchens using this end grain wood block pattern.

In the end, all of these woods are fantastic for bar tops, table tops and for chopping.

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