Restore flatness to the surface of old butcher block

[Brad_bb]

So my buddy who milled with me from 2014-2021 gave me one of the two butcher blocks from his family's neighborhood grocery store.  Kochalka Grocery operated from 1922-1976 in my hometown of Joliet, IL. 

It's hard maple and was made by the Michigan Butcher Block Company which I read online operated for about 100 years and closed for good in 2020.  Imagine that?  

As you can see the block top is worn quite a bit.  It looks like they kept turning the block 90 degrees to make the wear even on all sides. The side pieces have two dovetails as noted by the corner piece sticking up.  

The front and back also have dovetails, but in a different orientation.

There are also steel rods with nuts on the ends running in one direction through the block and the nuts are covered by wooden plugs.

Well, I need to get the surface flat again.  This is end grain and it's impregnated with animal fats and blood.  This means that you cannot wide belt or drum sand it or sand it at all, otherwise the paper would just clog and oils would start burning and stink things up.  I saw a guy on utube restoring two of these and made that mistake.  It was a mess.  It's 11.5" tall right now at the corners, and 30.5" square.  At the lowest point It's about 10 or 10.25".  I'm thinking about the best way to go about this.  A Slab Mizer will not work because it only goes up to 8" thick.  I took it to a guy I've worked with and we tried it on his Slab Mizer and no go.  I'm thinking about sawing it on a wide mill to get it close, and then looking to see if anyone has a CNC Router that will go high enough? I also thought about knocking down the corner height with a turbo plane on my grinder, but that would take a lot longer than the wide mill.  I know a guy locally who has one.  Any suggestions?  I think it's going to take a router with a fly cutting like they use on the slab flatteners.

[21incher]

That's exactly what an old butcher block should look like. I worked in a store with one that looked just like it. Kept the blood off the floor.  If you want flat why not flip it over and use the bottom 
I think it would be easy to clamp some guides on it and just use a simple router sled if it won't  fit on your mill to flatten.

[Southside]

You have to wonder how many knife strokes it took to work that down over the years. 

[tule peak timber]

I know that it was a gift, and he is surely your friend for thinking of you, but I can't help thinking that a beautiful block like that is worth a lot of money as is. Any of the big cities would have a market for it as an entry table especially with its history. I see this kind of table displayed in movies all the time as designer pieces in upscale homes. What a nice butcher block !

[doc henderson]

use as is, or cut it to the desired height on a mill, two minutes with a belt sander.  some butcher bock oil and done.  I would not make it harder than it has to be.

[Brad_bb]

You can't use it as is.  There is too much oil/fat/blood that is soaked in.  It's not sanitary.  There is even some mold on the top.  You cannot sand something that is so oily either.  Maybe scraped?  I haven't really done much of any scraping and it's end grain so I'm not sure how well it would work?

[rusticretreater]

I would try an electric hand planer.  You can start on the edges and slowly bring it back down to level. The protruding corner piece will either need to be removed for the process or be discarded.  Even if you have some tear out, you will be able to sand it forever. 

or find someone with a big bandsaw and just lop it off;
or build a tray to hold it on your sawmill and just lop it off;
or start chiseling and wood carving.

[doc henderson]

I would take it down on a mill, then sand if needed.

[Old Greenhorn]

When I worked in a seasonal commercial kitchen, at the beginning of each season as part of bringing the entire kitchen up and ready for a DOH inspection, we would dump several pounds of salt on out butcher block tables that were used for raw food prep, like quartering chickens, etc. Then we would rub that salt in for about 15 minutes or until the salt was discolored or icky, just with our hands. Then we would rinse and repeat until the salt stayed white. Then we washed it one more time with scalding water, towel and then air dried. They came up white or yellow like they were new. We did the heavy use ones about once a month and again at the end of the season.
 That process sure did clean our hand and smoothed out ant callouses.

[Brad_bb]

Old Greenhorn, Yes that is what you're supposed to to wood cutting boards, I've hear lemon or lime juice and salt.  I've got to think about what I want to do.  On one hand the wear is pretty cool, but it would limit the use of the block.  Flattening it, and then if it could be made so that food could be prepped would be a cool thing.  I don't know how to know if it is sanitary enough?  Maybe there is a bacterial test?  If not sanitary, then it would just become a side table.  I have the turned legs it had, but I'd probably make square legs to fit in more with the style my house will be as a rustic timberframe.  The original legs just inserted into counterbored holes in the bottom.

[SwampDonkey]

A nice chunk of wood with a lot of history for sure. You are very lucky to have it. 

[doc henderson]

blood and guts will only sustain life for a time.  I bet if you cut it fresh it will be fine.  camping we use old table "cleaned off" by young men and not that well.  If you were here, I could get a swab to the lab for you.  you could check with a university or extension agent.  That thing was used for a long time and prob. just wiped off.  bleach would kill whatever but give a bad taste.  they have sanitizers for beer and food equipment you could try that impart no taste.  you could heat it up, but it may shrink and damage the joinery.  like a sterilization for boards in a kiln.  the local health department can maybe give you a resource for surveillance cultures.  they used it just like that everyday in the old store.

[Don P]

I sanded down the one at the family store down the street from our first apartment. Lots of 36 grit belts, belt cleaner sticks, uhh, we had a non pc name for them  , and I got it "Good enough". With the swingblade I'd have it within orbital finish in 5 minutes. Any swingblades nearby?

[scsmith42]

Ditto Don's comments above.  A swing blade mill would make short work of flattening that block.

[Ed]

At one time Porter Cable made a router setup to flatten those.
Used to be people that had a route , go around and flatten them.

Might check ebay...

Ed

[sumpnz]

For those worried about sanitation, @Old Greenhorn has it right.  Bacteria require a certain amount of free water to survive and salt make water so it's not free to bacteria.  Work a bunch of salt into the wood.  Leave it sitting for a few days if you want, won't hurt it. Scrape it off, and repeat until it comes clean.  Some lemon or lime juice might help.  When done rinse with very hot water (that will help melt any grease and remove it).  Let air dry.  I guarantee you it will be as sanitary as a plate of glass that was just bleached.  

If you don't believe me just look at prosciutto or any other traditionally cured meat and tell why they are room temperature shelf stable. 

[dougtrr2]

If you google wood vs plastic cutting boards you will find a lot of responses.  This is one typical one.

According to food scientists, wooden cutting boards are more sanitary than plastic cutting boards. Plastic cutting boards get "microscratches" which are nearly impossible to sanitize and harbor bacteria. So do wooden cutting boards, but the wood draws moisture in, leaving the surface dry enough to kill the bacteria.

In my biased scanning, it seemed like most responses were that wood was better, but both can be okay if cleaned.

Doug in SW IA

[Don P]

The one in a country store that I flattened was being removed from service in the great butcher block purge of ~'82. The state decided they were unsanitary. He quit butchering, put a plastic top on it and used it for sandwich prep. I've read both on plastic and wood over the years and have both. What I've found is clean cutting boards are more sanitary than filthy ones. So far, we're all still here.

Along the lines of what sumpnz was talking about, for retail sale we had to have her pepper jelly lab tested for water activity. In that case sugar does the trick.

[Hilltop366]

I remember seeing a local restaurant fixing up their block, they were using a hand held planer, he would go around the edge planing towards the centre so to not blow out the edges, he may have finished with a belt sander if I remember right.

[Brad_bb]

Thanks everyone.  I'll report when I've made progress.  I have about 15 projects going at once, and often a new one gets put on me that has to go to the front of the line.  I'm sure most of you can relate.

[beenthere]

Source wood vs plastic cutting boards.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31113021/

[doc henderson]

nice reference, beenthere!

[maineshops]

When I did mine about 50 or so years ago I brought it down clos as I could with a chain saw. Then I used the body grinder to finish it up. It now serves as a hitched table in our retirement cabin in northern Maine.
Today I think I would rig up a router sled to do that job. Dan

[doc henderson]

MS.  any pics of your old block.

[Brad_bb]

What's a hitched table?  One that's married?