Tree & CO 18x12x2 MODE Butcher Block Repair

Sooo, some of you may have seen my score over on the Kitchen Acquisitions thread. I picked up an 18x12 Tree & CO MODE (beveled edges) board in an Amazon scratch and dent deal for only $49. The damage wasn't pictured, but it was described as only 1/4" x 1/4", and didn't affect the functionality of the board at all. I was really excited about such a great deal, and couldn't wait to get the thing in the mail.

Here's the ad pictures from Amazon:



Nice board right?

Well, I got it in the mail yesterday.

Here's the actual 'flaw':


Just a small break in the grain of the wood. No biggie. I actually rubbed it full of beeswax and it's nearly invisible.

Now, here's the reason for this thread:



The 1" crack is bad enough...but the split that runs down the seam 6" or so...that's even worse.

So I did a little bit of research, and it looks like the repair is easy enough. Soooo, off to Home Depot I go to get a better set of clamps than I currently have...and some TiteBond III wood glue.

More pictures later .

 

So the first thing when I got home, I clamped it up on the bed to make sure it would close tightly enough to make it even worth the effort:



Looks reasonable to me.

You can also see a hint of how nice the board is going to look once oiled. On either side I put butter on it last night just to see what it would do. It soaked it ALL up within a few hours. The board is dead thirsty.

So, time for glue up:


The tools.



Taped. I did all sides, just because I didn't want a huge mess to clean. It probably doesn't matter as the whole board will need resanded...but I'd hate to find out the stuff is a nightmare to remove, after the fact.



Basically how this worked, was I put the glue on the top first, then applied suction to the bottom with the shop vac while spreading the board a bit with my hands. This would've been easier if I had three arms, but I managed to get glue to come out of the bottom down the entire length of the split. I then slathered extra glue one every surface and massaged it in the best I could just because. Ironically, I then wiped it all off lol.


All clamped up!


And here's the joint after the glue has dried for about 5 minutes. I think this will be acceptable after sanding.



In looking the board over today in the daylight...the thing is obviously STARVED for oil (as I mentioned above). If any moisture got to the board it's no surprise the thing cracked like it did. The first thing I'm going to do once I sand all the surfaces down is literally slather every surface with the board butter butter I made. I may even apply heat to it via a hair dryer set on low...just to help it soak in initially (going to research that first lol). I think when it's all said and done...this board should work out nicely though. I mean, I paid more for the clamps to fix it than I did for the board...but it was a fun experience, and I'm sure I'll use the clamps down the road eventually regardless...so it works out!

More pictures once the board's cured up enough to work with!

 

man that's gonna be a pretty board once it gets done

 

So, cure time says 30 minutes before working it, and 24hrs before stressing it. The outer glue was nice and hard already...so I removed the tape.




Then I thought...well, it probably won't hurt to scrape off the outer layer of glue........


I then figured it'd be ok to go ahead and scrape ALL the joints. This eliminated all of the high spots I was feeling, which it turned out were just glue that hadn't properly been sanded. Some of these things make me think the board was simply never finished. On their site it says every board is sent already oiled with their proprietary board butter, but this one was dry. The edges also appear almost unfinished. Nice and rounded, just not 'smooth'. And, yes...I made a honyaki kiridashi shop knife lol.


Told you this board was thirsty.



Top all scraped.



A few passes with a coarse DMT plate leveled the gap at the crack. I swear I use those plates for everything lol.



Yes, they literally glued the packaging bag directly to the board. I had to rip the bag off to remove the board last night. This was a serious '******' moment for me.



Now that I'd gotten this far...I decided to go ahead and hand sand it with some 220 grit paper lol.



And the gap at the crack all finished up. I also removed that goofy insignia which was actually NAILED into the board with a small tack, and glued on lol. The hole quickly filled with sandpaper and you can no longer see it (not the hole in this picture...I think that was an actual nail hole from whatever that chunk of wood was in its previous life).

So now I'm going to hit it with 400 grit by hand, then butter the hell out of it and let it sit for a week lol.

Anyone know for sure if it'll hurt it to hit it with a low heat source to help the board absorb the oils and wax?

 

I agree James...and for a total of about $60 it even came with free clamps and TiteBond III wood glue!!



More seriously though...I am almost happier I had to fix it. Now it's MINE you know? Probably the most wonderful thing to me about being handy....you know, making things...is the sense of...I don't know?...fulfillment maybe??...that I get from using the things I make. I've never done any sort of woodworking project in my life outside of my knife handles...and those were the first time I'd touched any wood beyond a pine 2x4 lol. But now, I get to use a beautiful board that was completely useless before...that I repaired myself...with a knife I made with my own hands, to prepare food for myself and my family.

It really is a great feeling.

 

Its not fulfillment, or because its "mine" it was probably the whole, ya'ay I get to go to the tool place and buy more toys lol

 

This guy. There's nothing he can't do!

 

Lol Jason! Seriously man...there's nothing the internet can't teach a person to do in minutes is all it is .

Just sanded the block to 400 grit. I think any higher is pointless. The way it 'feels' under your hand is awesome . I'll post some more pictures once it's all buttered up.

 

400 is all you need man. Apply the butter, then hit it with the hair dryer. Should work great. That glue doesn't melt till a much higher temp (I did make it melt once in the over).

 

Nice job Cris? Any reason you wouldn't start with straight mineral oil for penetration before using board butter?

 

Haha! Right!! Never enough tools lol.

Sweet! I was more concerned with somehow warping the admittedly 2" thick board lol (yeah, doesn't make a ton of sense I guess, but still!). I already did it though, and it worked great lol.

Soooo...!


Sanded to 400 grit! I didn't end up using the goofy sponge lol. Well, actually I tried but it was useless. It only cost like $4 though and matched the board so I thought 'why not??'.



Butter slathered on! Man I love the way this stuff smells!!


After I hit it with the hair dryer and rubbed it in real well. I spent probably 20 minutes with the heat on each side, and will use heat every time I oil it for the next month (4 or 5x). After that, I'll just oil it up every few weeks and let it sit overnight. MANY of those surface checks have already closed up.



AND DONE!!

Honestly loving the way this thing turned out .

 

Lack of knowledge I suppose, lol. This is the first block I've ever seasoned myself. 2/3 of my butter is coconut oil and choji oil (which is a like 100:1 ratio of clove oil and mineral oil)...so I think with the heat it probably got in there pretty good.

 

looks pretty good, would look better when you can get a knife on it lol.

That did turn out to be a beautiful board

 

I think so too. I think I see acacia in there...and I see rosewood for sure. No idea what the other woods might be though.

 

btw what is board butter ? when you first mentioned it I thought you actually put butter on the board, was about to ask if you use salted or unsalted lol (Of course you would have thought I was joking so I wouldnt have looked to bad)

 

Great job on the board. I didn't think something like this was salvageable. I'll try the board butter trick on my cheaper hardwood end grain since it's been acting up a bit lately. Btw, board butter is a mix of beeswax and mineral oil; personally, I use something like a 1:4 ratio beeswax to mineral oil.

 

Lol...board butter is a conditioner for cutting boards/butcher blocks. People make it out of all kinds of stuff...but as JamesL said, generally it's beeswax and mineral oil. I added coconut oil and choji oil to my beeswax. My ratio was similar to JamesL's as well, but it was 1 part beeswax, 2 parts coconut oil, and 2 parts choji oil (which is something like 100:1 mineral oil to clove oil as I said above). The choji oil is also what I put on my knives for rust prevention.

The board butter makes a great moisturizer and chapstick too .

Thanks!! Depending on how the crack is formed, and how warped the board ends up...from what I gather they can often be fixed with barely a clue they were ever split. Kinda crazy...but if I did it, anyone can lol.