Michael Sullivan is a writer covering kitchen equipment and tableware. He has broken more than a hundred drinking glasses to find the most durable.
There’s a lot to love about wood cutting boards: They’re a pleasure to chop on and gentler on knife edges. And they’re far more beautiful than plastic ones. The only downside to wood is that it’s prone to warping and so requires more babying than plastic—wood must be hand-washed and oiled regularly. A warped board is a true tragedy in the kitchen. But by properly caring for your wood cutting board, you can help it avoid this fate so that it lasts for many years.
What you need
For cleaning, oiling, and waxing
- A bench scraper or metal spatula: This is used to gently scrape off stuck-on food or to remove dried salt (if you use a salt-and-lemon paste to get rid of odors).
- A mild dish soap: We like Seventh Generation Free & Clear Dish Liquid.
- A sponge: We like Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scrub Sponges.
- A clean dish towel and paper towels: The Williams-Sonoma All Purpose Pantry Towels are our favorite for soaking up as much water from the board as possible before letting it air-dry. Use paper towels to apply mineral oil or wax to your board.
- Food-grade mineral oil, beeswax, or a blend: Howard Cutting Board Oil or Clapham’s Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish both work well, but any brand will do—as long as it’s food-safe.
- Kosher salt and a lemon or distilled white vinegar: This is used to deodorize your board if it’s stinky.
- Baking soda: This will remove tough stains from your board.
For restoring a damaged board
- Various grits of sandpaper: For sanding, the pros recommend using a range of sandpaper grits, from 80 to 400, depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
- A small flat box, sanding block, or orbital sander: These tools make it much easier to sand efficiently and evenly.
- A clean rag or large paintbrush: This is used to clean wood particles off your board after sanding.
How long will it take?
Everyday cleaning usually takes only a minute or two, as do oiling and waxing the board (which you’ll need to do about once a month, depending on the type of wood and the climate you live in). But once the oil is applied, it will take several hours for it to absorb into the wood.
The time it takes to sand the surface of your cutting board varies depending on how deep the gouges are, the size of your board, and how much sanding you want to do. It’s a bit of a project, and it requires some elbow grease, so plan for an hour or more.
How to clean a wood cutting board
Always hand-wash your wood cutting board. Never put a wood board or other wood items (like salad bowls and spoons) in the dishwasher or submerge them in a sink full of water because they’ll warp and/or crack.
If you can’t clean your board right after preparing food, just leave it on your counter until you can get to it. In some situations, you may not even need to wash it. If you’ve only sliced bread, just brush away the crumbs or wipe the surface clean with a damp cloth or paper towel.
If your board does need cleaning, first gently remove any stuck-on bits of food using a bench scraper or metal spatula. If there are any stubborn stains, you can create a slurry of baking soda and water and gently rub the mixture onto the board using a Scotch-Brite sponge.
Gently scrub your board with a sponge and hot, soapy water (we recommend using a mild unscented dish soap, such as Seventh Generation Free & Clear Dish Liquid). It’s important to wash both sides of the board (even if you chopped on only one side) to prevent it from drying unevenly, which could cause the board to warp.
Rinse the board and dry it thoroughly with a clean dish towel or paper towels. Stand it upright on your counter to prevent any residual water from pooling, and let it air-dry completely before you store it.
Removing unpleasant smells
If your board picks up any smells from potent foods like garlic and onions, there are a couple of ways to deodorize it. In the Wirecutter test kitchen, we like to use a combination of lemon juice and kosher salt to deodorize boards, and most of the woodworking pros I spoke with said this was not likely to harm the wood. However, you may want to test this first by scrubbing a small area of your board, since certain types of wood or finishes may react differently to any cleaning solution.
Sprinkle the board with a generous amount of kosher salt. Squeeze lemon juice over the salt, and use the cut side of the lemon to rub the mixture over the board (if your lemon isn’t very juicy, you can also add a little water to the board to create a thick paste).
Allow the paste to dry on the board completely, and then gently scrape it off using a bench scraper or metal spatula. Wash and dry the board.
Alternatively, to help eliminate odors, you can spritz the surface of a board with a solution of 25% distilled white vinegar and 75% water. Just be sure to stand the board upright after spraying to let it air-dry completely before storing it. And be aware that this could temporarily leave a vinegar taste behind on your board.
Dealing with mildew
If your board develops mildew (usually this looks like clusters of small black spots), it’s probably time to say goodbye to it. Mildew usually results from inadequate drying before storing. According to Allison Samuels, founder of Two Trees Studios, “mildew tends to collect on the very perimeter of the board, which is where you’ve been standing it up to dry.” If you really want to salvage your board, the pros recommend contacting a professional woodworker for advice or, if you’re up for a project, sanding off the mildew. However, Samuels cautioned that you want to be sure you’re sanding down enough of the wood to remove all of the mildew, otherwise it could return.
What about sanitizing your board?
In most cases, soap and hot water are sufficient for cleaning your board. You don’t need to disinfect it unless you’re using it to prepare raw meat. But we’d recommend that you use a separate plastic board for meat, poultry, or seafood, and a wood board for everything else. Plastic boards can be easily sanitized with a chlorine bleach solution or washed in the dishwasher without damaging them. Using a separate board also helps eliminate the risk of cross-contamination.
The USDA does suggest using a dilute solution of chlorine bleach and water to sanitize boards. However, this method dried out and discolored the wood boards in our tests, so we don’t recommend it.
You may also have read about cleaning your board using distilled white vinegar. It’s not registered as a disinfectant with the Environmental Protection Agency, though, so vinegar will only remove dirt and debris, but it won’t sanitize the surface (that is, kill microorganisms). A vinegar solution can, however, help remove strong odors from your board, as mentioned above.
How to oil and wax your board
Wood naturally dries out after frequent washings, so you need to oil and wax it to prevent it from becoming brittle and cracking. Properly conditioning your board also creates a protective barrier against moisture, and this helps keep the board clean and makes it less likely to warp or crack. Conditioning the board also helps prevent it from staining or absorbing strong odors.
There are many ways to condition a cutting board. If you have a method that works well, or particular oils or waxes you prefer, keep using them. This is the method we like to use in the Wirecutter test kitchen (and you can use this technique for other wood items, including salad bowls and spoons).
Generously apply food-safe mineral oil—such as Howard Cutting Board Oil or Lamson TreeSpirit Mineral Oil—to the wood, and use a paper towel to rub it evenly over the entire surface and sides of the board. The pros recommend using mineral oil (or a blend, like Boos Block Mystery Oil) because it’s flavorless and odorless, and it won’t go rancid on your board like olive or vegetable oils tend to do. Mineral oil is also inexpensive and easy to find at most hardware stores.
Stand the board upright for several hours (preferably overnight) to allow the wood to absorb the oil.
The next day, use a fresh paper towel to wipe off any excess residue. Then apply a food-safe beeswax or a wax blend to help seal the oil in the board. We’ve tested Clapham’s Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish, Cutting Board Natural Wood Wax, and Boos Block Board Cream, which were equally effective in our tests. Jeremy Cox, full-time faculty in the Fine Woodworking Program at Red Rocks Community College, suggests gently heating the beeswax first, so that it’s “easier to distribute and will penetrate the wood a little bit deeper.”
How often should you oil and wax your board?
There’s no one schedule for oiling boards, much like there is no one schedule for watering plants—it depends on the environment in which you’re storing the board, the type of wood, and how frequently you’re using it. Once a month is a good place to start, but there’s no harm in oiling your board whenever it looks thirsty. How can you tell? If you sprinkle a few drops of water on the board with your fingertips, it will bead up when the wood is sufficiently oiled (just like a waxed car). If the water disperses or soaks into the wood, your board needs more oil.
How to repair a damaged board
Refinishing a badly scarred or stained board
After many years of use, your wood cutting board may become scarred, gouged, or stained with water spots on the surface. To smooth the surface and/or remove stubborn stains, it needs to be sanded.
You’ll need to do several rounds of sanding, starting with a coarser-grit sandpaper and gradually working toward a finer-grit one. (Master craftsman William LaRue recommends using 100-, 120-, 150-, and 180-grit sandpaper, and finishing with 220-grit.) If your board has really deep gouges, you may want to start with 80-grit sandpaper and work your way up. Finishing with 220-grit sandpaper is probably sufficient in most cases, but there’s no harm in continuing on to finer grits, like 320 or 400, if you feel so inclined. Cox said that finer-grit sandpaper “creates smaller and smaller gouges into the board, which make it tougher and tougher for smaller particles to embed themselves into the board on a micro level.”
Cut the sandpaper to fit around a small, flat box (one that’s comfortable to grip with one hand), a sanding block, or an electric orbital sander (if you have one). Sand the board in the direction of the grain (for end-grain boards, pick any direction to sand and stick with it). Once the sandpaper becomes clogged or worn down, switch to a new piece.
Brush away any dust, and look at the board in the light, from a low angle. If you see any unevenness or inconsistencies, keep sanding with the same grit until the board looks even. Be sure to remove the board’s deep gouges with the coarsest grit first, before moving on to finer grits.
Proceed in the same way for each subsequent grit. Cox recommends sanding both sides of your board (even if one side is worse than the other) so that each surface receives equal treatment and will be less prone to warping.
Once you’re finished sanding, use a clean rag or large paint brush to clean off all of the wood particles; then oil and wax the board.
What about warped or cracked boards?
In most cases, once a board is warped or cracked, it’s better to get a new one. If you really want to repair your board, the pros recommend taking it to a professional woodworker rather than attempting to do it yourself. A woodworker will be able to take a cracked board apart, sand it down, remove the damaged area, and reassemble and refinish it. Certain wood fillers can be used to fill minor cracks. But LaRue told us that if a crack isn’t properly cleaned and disinfected prior to filling, bacteria can migrate through the filler and/or wood back to the surface of the board. And for someone who’s unfamiliar with fillers, they can be messy and tricky to use.
There are plenty of DIY YouTube demos on repairing warped boards (some of which we’ve tested), but ultimately we found them to be very hit or miss. “There really are no guaranteed methods to get everything flat once again,” Cox said. A professional can run a warped board through a wood planer, but “there's going to have to be some modification. It’s going to become smaller either in thickness, or width, or length to remove whatever issue is present.” Repairs can also be costly, so it may make more sense to just buy a new board. In our guide to the best cutting boards, we recommend boards that are at least 1½ inches thick because they’re far more resistant to warping than thinner boards.
Sources
Reliable and Scientific Tips for Cleaning with Vinegar, NSF, 2021
Donald W. Schaffner, PhD, extension specialist in food science and distinguished professor at Rutgers University, email interview, January 14, 2021
William LaRue, Master Craftsman at LaRue Woodworking, phone interview, January 8, 2021
David Mobley, long-time member of the Northeastern Woodworkers Association (NWA), email interview, January 20, 2021
Jeremy Cox, full-time faculty in the Fine Woodworking Program at Red Rocks Community College, phone interview, January 21, 2021
Allison Samuels, founder of Two Trees Studios, phone interview, January 21, 2021
Bob Flexner, Rules for Sanding Wood, Popular Woodworking, January 4, 2019
Mentioned above
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- To find the best spatula for every scenario, we’ve tested spatulas of all types––from all-purpose fish spatulas to silicone scrapers.The Best Spatulas
- After 65 hours of research, testing 28 detergents and 7 years of long-term testing, we found Seventh Generation Dish Liquid to be the best for most people.The Best Dish Soap
- We’ve wiped up gallons of spills with 25 different towels over the past four years, and the Williams Sonoma All Purpose Pantry Towels are the best we’ve found.The Best Kitchen Towels
- We spent more than 120 hours on research, and used and abused over 30 cutting boards. Read to see what we recommend.The Best Cutting Boards
Further reading
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by Sarah Bogdan
To keep your couch looking fresh, vacuum it regularly, and be prepared to clean up messes quickly.
How to Clean Your Hairbrush
by Dorie Chevlen
Your hairbrush is home to some disgusting stuff. Here’s how to clean it.
How to Clean Your Dishwasher
by Liam McCabe
Your dishwasher cleans your dishes, but the machine needs to be cleaned too.
How to Clean an Oven
by Rachel Wharton
We tapped experts to help us refine an approach to cleaning ovens that reduces labor and eliminates the use of harsh chemicals.