Get In touch

Headquarters
Fifth & Cherry Headquarters
609 S. Goliad Street, #154
Rockwall, TX 75087
info@fifthandcherry.com
Phone: 484-272-2253

Factory
Fifth & Cherry Manufacturing
37 Carpenter Street
Reading, PA 19602
customercare@fifthandcherry.com

The Problem With These Boards

Mixed-wood and novelty cutting boards can be pretty, but they’re best used for presenting finished foods versus being used as an actual cutting board to prepare food. At Fifth & Cherry, we create boards that you can use day after day, making delicious meals and memories with your loved ones. Mixed-wood and novelty boards go against what we believe makes a quality cutting surface, and the reasons why these boards don’t hold up to rigorous use and our standards of quality lie in the science of wood.

At Fifth & Cherry, we only use end-grain wood construction (where the wood fibers are vertical). A lot of novelty boards use long-grain wood construction (where the wood fibers are horizontal), like the board pictured below, which is prone to knife grooving, which makes for an unsafe cutting surface as your knife gets caught in those grooves and the cutting surface becomes uneven. Long-grain surfaces break down faster because the wood fibers break under the knife blade and require more maintenance in terms of refinishing in order to maintain a safe cutting surface. Long-grain is also more likely to warp, crack, and delaminate.


Conversely, as you cut across end-grain wood, the wood fibers separate, allowing the knife blade to pass through them, and then come back together. This results in less knife grooving, maintaining an even cutting surface. Also, because there is less resistance to your knife blade, it keeps the blade sharper, longer. A sharper knife means a safer knife.

We don’t recommend mixing woods. It looks pretty but using different woods which naturally have different hardness levels will wear unevenly and make for an unsightly and unsafe cutting surface over time. This can damage your knives as it cuts across the different woods and uneven surface. Also, the different woods swell and contract at different rates which can cause warping and delamination. At Fifth & Cherry, we only use Cherry wood due to its ideal hardness as a cutting surface and its beauty. Cherry wood naturally has lighter and darker parts of the wood which makes for a beautiful kaleidoscope effect. Additionally, Cherry wood darkens over time as it is exposed to light, so your Fifth & Cherry board will actually get richer and more beautiful over time.

A very trendy material to use in cutting boards right now is resin, however, resins should never be used on a cutting surface. Epoxy and resin make a hard and slippery surface that will ruin your knives and is unsafe because your knife can easily slip and twist as you cut. Additionally, as you cut on the resin it starts to flake off into your food and you will end up ingesting it. 
For more information, check out The Difference page on our website. 

Whether it’s a state flag or a specialty shape, novelty and mixed-wood cutting boards are in high demand and some of them are really pretty boards; but they are not meant for high usage as an actual cutting surface.

When you want a board that will last forever, protect your knives, and will remain a safe cutting surface, choose Fifth & Cherry.


Fifth & Cherry’s end-grain cherry wood is the safest and most sanitary material you can use as a cutting surface in your kitchen. To ensure that your board will always look and perform its best, Fifth & Cherry refinish our boards for free forever!

Each board is individually serialized to guarantee that it is an authentic Fifth & Cherry cutting board. Register your board on our website, and when you are ready to have your board refinished, email us at customercare@fifthandcherry.com.

If you’d like a board for yourself or have a gifting occasion coming up, we would appreciate your consideration. Sign up for our newsletter to receive 15% off your first order and as always, our boards ship direct for free!

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