There isn't a best wood for a cutting board. There's the one that suits your kitchen and how you'll use it. Here is how the three I cut boards from compare, and the short answer if you'd rather not think about it.
The short answer
- A gift that looks striking: walnut, or a maple-and-walnut stripe.
- A workhorse for daily chopping: maple.
- Something that changes as the years go by: cherry.
Hard maple
Creamy, nearly white, with a fine, tight grain. It's the classic butcher-block wood and the hardest of the three, at about 1,450 on the Janka scale, so it shrugs off knife marks. That tight grain also holds finer engraving detail than anything else I cut. Over the years it warms slightly.
Walnut
Deep chocolate brown, sometimes with purple or gray streaks. At about 1,010 Janka it's softer than maple, which makes it easier on knife edges, and engraving shows up strongest against it. It lightens a little over the years in daylight.
Cherry
Starts out a pinkish tan and darkens a lot in daylight: noticeably deeper inside a year, and a real reddish brown after a few. Its hardness, about 950 Janka, sits close to walnut's. If you like a piece that changes as it ages, this is the one.
What hardness means here
Janka numbers measure resistance to denting. Higher isn't automatically better. A harder board takes knife marks better; a softer one is easier on your knife. Both maple and walnut make good everyday boards.
Maple and walnut together
A stripe of walnut through a maple board gives you the hardness of maple where you cut and the contrast of walnut where you look. It makes a good wedding or anniversary board: the engraving reads clearly on the maple, and the walnut makes it look finished on the counter.
A board that never needs oil
Solid surface, sold as Corian®, is non-porous, so it needs no oil and no finish at all. It's an option if the person you're buying for won't keep up with a wooden board.
Why yours won't match the photo exactly
Every board is cut from a real plank, and no two planks are the same. Within one species you'll see shifts in color, grain and figure, and the occasional small knot or mineral streak. A walnut board can run from mid-brown to nearly black, and maple can be dead white or faintly golden. That's the difference between a piece of wood and a picture of one.
What I do promise: the board will be sound, finished properly, and free of anything that affects how it works. If a knot or a wild bit of grain lands where your engraving goes, I flag it on the proof so you can decide before I cut.
Ready to choose? Design a personalized cutting board, or pick a board cut to the shape of your state. For keeping it in shape afterward, here's how to care for a wooden cutting board.