: Elliott

: As for the finish, either prepared oil or the vegetable oil are the best. We
: always used the vegetable oil as it's about 1/100th of the price of the
: store bought stuff. And it's about the same.

: As for the wood, there is a very critical reason why you should stick to the
: non-porous materials such as Birch or Maple. It has nothing to do with
: what's in the wood, but that would be a concern as well. The reason you
: don't use porous woods is that food stuffs, oil, blood, sauses and even in
: the instance you mentioned, not mentioning, You get foreign material into
: the pours and it rots, or gets rancid and next time you use the board, you
: are poisoning yourself. Not always seriously, but could be. There are
: reasons for everything folks do what they have done for years, and that's
: a major one for Butcher blocks / cutting boards. I would stay with the
: rule of thumb on this one. Birch is the cheapest way to go, and probably
: cheaper than the Oak and ash ( both very pourous ) and walnut ( very
: acidic ).

: Hemlock is Pretty too!

: Rehd
My wife told me to look at the cutting boards at our local yuppie gift shoppe. Guess what I saw there? Beautifil cutting boards for anywhere between $30 And $80. Yeah they were gorgeous and you know, Red oak walnut and ash were the primary woods used. Go figure eh?
Cheers, Elliott