well, unless there is an emotional connection, replacing is probably the best option.
maple . . . err, uhmmmm, maple is classically ‘the best wood’ especially for end grain.
dense, close grain, little knife damage, etc etc etc and et.al.
my billion dollar current board(s) are hard/rock maple - the utterly classic wood for cutting boards . . . - but with a decorative border of walnut / cherry. simliar bought for kid1, kid2, kid3 . . . it’s generational quality stuff. boardsmith.com - exceptionally good stuff…
Boos boards/products - long standing top tier name . then, like OMG they took a lot of “hits” back a few years . . . cracks/etc - butcher block fee standing many-hundred pound ‘tables’ . . . cracked top to bottom, , , “natural” issues, warranty declined . . .
destroyed the Boos reputation in a single bound . . .
Some people just care more about what they own and don’t like to throw things away, if they somehow can repair them.
I think Tim is like that. If you can fix it or repair it, why throw it away ?
Personally I oil my wooden teak cutting boards once a year or when they start to look dry.
But if my cutting board started to have deep cracks in them I would also replace them since I would be a bit worried over potential bacteria feast inside the cracks in my cutting board and not really being able to wash the board thoroughly enough to get rid of such bacteria.
Even though I prefer to use my wooden cutting boards I mostly use my plastic cutting boards these days, and I’m well aware that they need to be replaced at some point, just like my non stick pans.
But Tim doesn’t own non stick cookware either - he’s just not a fan of having to throw things out, if it can be avoided and I totally respect him for that.
Rip it on the old glue lines (very important). Tablesaw or handsaw. Joint the ripped edges – power or with a hand plane.
Glue it back together. I’d use Titebond II or III. You’ll need bar clamps or pipe clamps.
You’ll lose some width - the number of rip cuts x the kerf width of the saw you used, plus a few passes to joint the edges.
It would take thirty minutes or less using all hand tools. Fifteen or less with power.
Overtime, with use, cured glue comes into play. It’s unavoidable. PVAs are supposed to be more or less inert when cured. There will always be a super teentsie tiny little bit of cured glue in your food as your knife scars the surface of the board and the glue-lines. If this scares you to death then the only way to avoid this is to simply use a wide piece of wood as your board – no glue whatsoever.
You could also use hide glue (animal glue), it can be made more water resistant by adding aluminum sulfate. You’ll need to use dry hide glue (pearls) and heat it to around 140* after soaking the pearls in water. I have a thermostatically controlled glue pot for my furnituremaking. Boiling hide glue ruins it.
As Claus mentioned, a board with cracks is a health hazard.
Boards, knives, pans…they are our tools in our chosen hobby.
We use them properly, we care for and maintain them well, but they are tools and will not last forever. Some are fairly short-lived, and some last decades.
But just like the woodworker, the metalsmith, or the tailor, tools eventually reach the end of their practical life.
When it becomes more costly to repair something than it is to buy a new one, then its time to let it go and move along.
I totally get not wanting to throw things away, but when it becomes an enormous project in and of itself…do we start an entire new hobby at great expense (time, saw, clamps, adhesives that aren’t toxic) or just accept that this tool has lived out ots life and go on?
(As to adhesives and toxicity…I get that it’s primarily micro doses but we ingest so much toxic by just existing…in our air, food, and water…why knowingly increase that dosage by any amount?)
I like the long term aspect of fixable things. Putting a new element in an ancient Dualit toaster, replacing the seals in an even more ancient lever espresso maker, even tinning old copper. My major appliances have all had repairs. I also like long term caring for things, be they knives, spoons, cutting boards, or other things. In short, I like being in extended relationships with inanimate objects. It goes beyond the kitchen to old Mizuno blades and a bullseye putter, a fountain pen that served me through a long career, and a Thorens turntable from the early 1970s. Lord knows how many times my two watches and the ships’ bells clock have been serviced. My car, however, is new, a 2008. Sometimes old things just wear out. I had a few rugs from my grandmother’s who got them from her parents. Eventually they were so threadbare and frayed they needed to be replaced, a sad moment. They were even beyond being darned like socks.
I do, too. There’s a lot of satisfaction in fixing things when you can. To NOT at least try to maintain and repair things borders on being a sin, in my book.
Rescuing/repurposing broken things…normally I am a huge fan but in January I was visiting mom in LA and encountered this broken toaster. Which she was continuing to use with a strong magnet to hold the the lever down. You needed to stand there to keep an eye on your toast or risk a burnt crisp.
No sentimentality - I went straight out and bought a new one and the krups was a goner. I’m sure she got 25 good years out of it.
5 Likes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
55
I like your mom’s gumption and her temp fix - better than using a rubber band, eh?
And okay so I won’t tell you about how getting the internal electromagnet to engage again is an easy fix.
Just (sorta) kidding, but I do like to tinker. But I tossed a toaster with the same problem a couple years ago - we’d gotten 20 years of it and it never did a good job anyway (slow, uneven), so I didn’t bother to fix the magnet. Unfortunately the new Black & Decker I replaced it with is slow and uneven as well.
But if you’ve got a really old toaster like the Sunbeam automatics, definitely fix it. I found one at thrift, rewired it and readjusted the tensioning mechanism, and now my 2nd daughter’s been using it daily for about 6 months.
(1) Very few tinkerers are left among us. There weren’t many in the BB generation to start with, and good luck finding any in Gens X and later.
(2) There aren’t many small appliance repair places to access. If you’re lucky enough to find one, they mostly just replace circuit boards and modules.
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
58
A. Hey, I’m GenX and know lots of tinkerers. Disclaimer(1) - I’m an engineer and a lot of the folks I hang with are engineers.
B. Hey, my GenZ kids are all tinkerers. Disclaimer(2) - they grew up with me, and at least 3 of 4 are or will be engineers, too.
So, I guess I tend to overestimate the population.
No argument on the repair places disappearing and/or being extremely limited service. But kind people on YouTube have stepped into that gap to a fair extent with instructional videos. Also lots of DIY fora for home fixit stuff with pros who are willing to help a noob as long as the noob is carefully specific in their questions (I tend to see they ignore people who post, “Help, my dryer isn’t working, what do I do???”).
Not long ago I completely fouled up a Schrade deadbolt that had the capability of setting tumblers for a second key (like if you had someone coming over to pet sit during an absence). A guy on YouTube taught me how to take the thing apart and reset all the tumblers to the original key. Another taught me how to add coolant to my household A/C unit (so I could do it for $30/lb instead of the $235/lb, plus show-up fee, that the HVAC services wanted)(*). Taught me how to rewire and fix the auto drop/rise mechanism in that old Sunbeam toaster. Taught me how to re-do my failing whole-house water pressure reducing valve (and 5 or 6 other plumbing jobs). Fix intermittent ignition failure in my furnace, and intermittent ignition failure in my stove. Replace the blower motor resistor in my wife’s old truck (heck, I’d never even heard of a blower motor resistor!) and then later fix a leaking coolant line going to the heater core in the same truck. I’m sure there are more things escaping my memory at the moment than I’ve listed…
(*) Edit - this one also required that I pass an EPA exam for use/handling of refrigerants, but the exam fee was only $25.
Yes, definitely, YouTube fixit videos are great for simple DIY. Might not be very helpful if one’s only tools are in a kit from Sharper Image…
I was lucky to have two friends in my formative years who could fix or fake up most anything. One was a farmer; the other was an aerospace engineer. They would’ve cleaned up on Junkyard Wars.
. I am 74 and very much looking forward to my formative years!