I’m installing a kitchen and making a couple of breadboards. Was going to go down to Cross-Cut (local Hardwood dealer) and get some hard maple, but got to thinking about the IPE I have left over from the deck.
Anybody ever heard of anybody using IPE for a breadboard? Stuff is as hard as hades…which brings up the only negative I can think of…might dull the heck out of some nice knives. But is there any published (as opposed reactionary) information on food-to-wood safety issues?
Thanks
Bruce
Replies
I don't know for certain, but I think I've read that it is OK for food contact. You could try this same question over at Knots also
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin
Thanks. Do you know the URL for 'Knots'?
look up in the right hand corner of your screen, where it says " Other Discussions"
click on " Knots", and you'll be there.
Knots and BT are but 2 of the forums offered by Taunton. Knots is the Fine Woodworking magazine's forum.
Don't know about food compatibility of Ipe vs Maple but I do remember about ten or twelve years ago there was a big push to get wood cutting boards out of commercial kitchen use.
The theory being that, the white polyethylene or UHMW plastic was more easily cleaned because it was solid and didn't contain any of the little microscopic nooks and crannies that exist in a substance like wood, where food particles and bacteria can hide. Makes sense right?
Wrong! When they actually tested the bacterial transmission theory, they found that wood actually had some bacteriostatic or mildly bactericidal quality that the plastic didn't.
I love hearing stuff like that. Anti-intuitive thinking!