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The butchers block was originally designed for cutting meat in a butcher’s shop. It is made of wood that has been glued together. Sugar maple is commonly used as the wood for butcher’s block. The best butcher block is invariably made from hard woods.

Butchers blocks are made with the wood facing one of two ways. If the wood grain is perpendicular with the surface of the wood, it is called end grain and if it is parallel it is called edge grain. The way the wood faces effects the quality and cost of the butcher’s block.

End grain butcher’s block is the preferable style of butcher’s block as it helps to keep implements sharper. With most end grain butchers block being over four inches in thickness, eng grain butcher’s blocks are very tough and durable. Even repeated blows by large meat cleavers do not harm these blocks. On occasion, the surface may need to be re-planed and re oiled, but this does not remove any appreciable amount of the total thickness of the block. This invariably makes the best chopping board.

Edge grain blocks are made of rails of woos that may be full length or jointed in construction. While these blocks are also durable, they are less durable than blocks constructed with the end grain exposed.

The butchers block was only invented about one hundred thirty years ago. Until then, butcher used tree rounds to cut meat on. A large section of tree trunk was mounted on legs. These sections had the problem of often splitting or cracking. The cracks proved to be unsanitary, as they provided breading grounds fro bacterial The welded construction of a butchers block makes cracking less likely. Maple Wood was chosen because it is the correct hardness to be long lasting, but soft enough to prevent dulling of knives.