Care of Our Wooden Kitchen Tools

THE BASICS: After use, DO wash briefly in warm, soapy water. Rinse and dry. DO NOT put into dishwasher. DO NOT soak in water for longer than is required to loosen food residue. Refresh occasionally with any product meant for cutting boards. 

That's really all you need to know. But even though caring for wood is pretty simple, I have been doing it and studying it for over 30 years, so pardon my info dump!

ADVANCED: Cutting boards, especially end grain ones, absorb water and then release it through evaporation. If only one face of a board gets wet, that face will swell. The other face, if it remains dry, stays the same size. Result: warping. When you wash a cutting board, wet both faces evenly. Same goes for drying: don't set a wet board flat on a countertop; the bottom face will dry more slowly than the top side, and the different moisture levels will result in warping. Allow cutting boards to dry while resting on edge, with good even airflow. Balance: the key to a long, happy life. Some of our end-grain cutting boards are 20 years old and still going strong.

OIL and WAX: Over time, all wood wears, dries out, and fades. Whenever you feel like it, refresh any of the wood in your kitchen (cutting boards, bowls, spoons, knife handles) by wiping with oil or any oil/wax blend marketed for cutting boards. Wipe it on, spread it as thin as you can, and wipe it off.

BUT WHICH OIL?

Best to Worst:

FLAX OIL dries to a hard protective coating inside the wood's pores. Available refrigerated in the health food section.

WALNUT OIL also dries to a protective coating, but takes far longer to dry. Be sure not to buy walnut oil blended with vegetable oil. Pure walnut oil should be available with other oils in the supermarket.

MINERAL OIL is odorless and colorless. However, it does not dry into any protective substance, and simply dissipates over time. Although it is perfectly food safe, it is a petroleum distillate, which some people try to avoid. Mineral oil can be found with the laxatives in the pharmacy.

ALSO-RANS: Tung oil dries hard like flax oil. It is a nut oil, a tropical import, and I don't know about its sustainability. Some other oils dry to a protective film, but to a far lesser degree than flax. These include hemp and poppy oils. Other vegetable oils, like coconut, sunflower, olive, etc. are harmless but don't harden and so dissipate over time.

MORE INFO: if you're a science nerd who'd like to get way deep into the chemistry underlying these natural processes, read up on "drying oils."

BREAKING NEWS, January 2026: a major newspaper's consumer advice section just put up a pretty good video on how to care for cutting boards. Other than the type of oil recommended, it's very close to the video WE would make on this topic.