What to charge for a cutting board

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Oliver Springs, TN
I've been approached by a coworker about building a cutting board for a birthday present. It would be around 15 x 10 or so. What would be a fair price? I will be using scrap maple, cherry, purple heart, jatoba or some combination. The board would be flat grained not end grained.

Thanks
 
I've been approached by a coworker about building a cutting board for a birthday present. It would be around 15 x 10 or so. What would be a fair price? I will be using scrap maple, cherry, purple heart, jatoba or some combination. The board would be flat grained not end grained.

Thanks

My rule of splintered thumb is to charge what you would pay for it. You can consider the fact that the wood is "scrap" but also consider that you bought the wood originally. As for me. if somebody I know well wants a cutting board, then I will make one for him or say come on over and I will help you make one.
 
Tough question, John. I have seen them priced from $5.00 to hundreds.
Do not consider the wood "scrap". It is left over inventory that you wisely kept on hand. It has value. Making sales after you have recouped costs is the way profit is made.
I would say, just go with your gut but don't sell to cheaply.
 
sorry didn't see that yours would be flat grain. At that point, still 40-50, same reasons. Wood costs money, even if it is 'left over' from another project, as Frank points out, you bought it, and while it does grow on trees, it still costs to get it to the consumer. Not to mention wear and tear on your machinery etc...
 
Besides to what has been said, bear in mind that it will be a unique piece, not one of a thousand machine made. If you want to charge more, personalize it inlaying it with the initials of the buyer or the person that is going to get it as a present. Be original, who says that a cutting board has to be rectangular, or round? there are infinite shapes could take...
 
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My rule of splintered thumb is to charge what you would pay for it.

Bill, I've seen you say this before, but this just doesn't make any sense to me. This wouldn't help me set a price at all.

After all, **I** wouldn't pay anything for a cutting board. I'd make it myself. That's why I'm a woodworker. ;)
 
John, when I was making and selling cutting boards, I was getting from about $35 to $100 each, depending on how figured the wood was. For something in the 10 x 15 inch range made of fairly plain hardwoods, I'd probably be charging in the $40 to $50 range, as Ned suggested.

I stopped making cutting boards for sale because I wasn't finding a lot of people who wanted to spend $35 to $100 dollars for a board. Since I was buying my materials at high (Rockler) retail prices, I was selling them for just a little over the cost of the materials. Didn't take me too long to see there was no real profit to be made with that business model.
 
Thanks guys for all the suggestions. I do realize that the "scrap" really isn't free, I did after all pay for it. I kept it with intentions of making cutting boards or small boxes or something from it.

I teach school, eighth grade to be exact. The lady that asked me to price her a board works at another school in the system. Her daughter teaches across the hall from me. If that makes sense. The board is for her daughter as a birthday present. I have made a couple of boards as Christmas gifts for a few of the people at school over the past couple of years. I guess her mother found out that I made them by word of mouth.

I was thinking of asking in the 35 to 40 dollar range.

Ned, if I could get that price for boards I'd go in the board business! Holy cow! :eek:

Vaughn, I've looked at your sight several times. Man, your boards are really beautiful. I really like the one that looks like a quilt square. I've been trying to get enough gumption to try one. I did make one of your 3-d boards, the tutorial was very well done. Thanks for putting it up.
 
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the aBC network just put a big dent in the wood cutting board business, as if things arent bad enough for guys who make custom stuff out of wood
Seems theres a big concern about salmonella infection in something like 40 states.....and they suggest not using wood cutting boards, but getting plastic ones, easier to keep clean, and even said to get one in different colors so you can code them to remember what foods youre cutting on them.
 
the aBC network just put a big dent in the wood cutting board business, as if things arent bad enough for guys who make custom stuff out of wood
Seems theres a big concern about salmonella infection in something like 40 states.....and they suggest not using wood cutting boards, but getting plastic ones, easier to keep clean, and even said to get one in different colors so you can code them to remember what foods youre cutting on them.

Allen,
That wood/plastic issue has been cussed/discussed a number of times in past years, and the laboratory studies have always found that the wood cutting boards are actually LESS germ infested than the plastic. The main advantage to the plastic is that it's dishwasher safe, but studies have indicated that wood, with a good rinsing, will become nearly bacteria free after a couple hours.

That said, we still use a plastic board for our meat - in fact, at Bed,Bath & Beyond, my wife found some heavy plastic sheets in colors for use as cutting surfaces. Just put them down on top of the cutting board, and use a different sheet for each ingredient. Probably overkill, but...
 
Nothing but wooden cutting boards here,, I wonder why :rolleyes: Hasn't killed me,,yet :rofl:

I was at baird bros sawmill today, (after chainsaw parts) They have maple end grain boards that they make out of the cutoffs, Smallest one they had was a 12X16 and it was $55
 
and weve been using my mothers for at least 21 years.

Just the way I read this thread and they had a segment on the news tonight about it....just mentioning what they said.
No harm at all in mentioning it. The subject comes up periodically on the woodworking and cooking forums. ;)
 
the aBC network just put a big dent in the wood cutting board business, as if things arent bad enough for guys who make custom stuff out of wood
Seems theres a big concern about salmonella infection in something like 40 states.....and they suggest not using wood cutting boards, but getting plastic ones, easier to keep clean, and even said to get one in different colors so you can code them to remember what foods youre cutting on them.

This topic comes up regularly. Dean O. Cliver, Ph.D. from the University of California (Davis), is a published expert in food safety and foodborne disease.

I took the opportunity a while back to contact Dr. Cliver and query him about his findings as there seemed to be a number of inconsistencies or "half quotes" on various web sites. Dr. Cliver was very accommodating and forwarded an article he authored. View attachment BORDTALK.doc

The article also listed a number of other publications by Dr. Cliver that I located. Acording to Dr. Cliver's findings, contrary to some popular beliefs, wood doesn't seem to have a magical ability to kill bacteria outright. However, wood cutting boards do appear to be safer according to his research though. Wood, unlike plastic, absorbs the liquids/bacteria and removes it from contract with food later placed on the same board. Dr. Cliver states though, that digging into the wood will reveal the bacteria is still there but it because it's not sitting on top of the board like a plastic one, greatly reduces the cross contamination likelihood.

The attached article didn't deal with the mineral oil issue which also comes p regularly, but in a seperate paper extract below, Dr. Cliver also states "Mineral oil treatment of the wood surface had little effect on the microbiological findings."

So there you have it, wood boards are safer than plastic if properly cleaned and taken care of AND mineral oil does not create a health problem.

Mike

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"The microbiology of plastic and wooden cutting boards was studied, regarding cross-contamination of foods in home kitchens. New and used plastic (four polymers plus hard rubber) and wood(nine hardwoods) cutting boards were cut into 5-cm squares("blocks"). Escherichia coli (two nonpathogenic strains plus type OI57:H7), Listeria innocua, L. monocytogenes, or Salmonella typhimurium was applied to the 25-cm2 block surface in nutrient broth or chicken juice and recovered by soaking the surface in nutrient broth or pressing the block onto nutrient agar, within 3-10 min or up to ca. 12 h later. Bacteria inoculated onto plastic blocks were readily recovered for minutes to hours and would multiply if held overnight. Recoveries from wooden blocks were generally less than those from plastic blocks, regardless of new or used status; differences increased with holding time. Clean wood blocks usually absorbed the inoculum completely within 3-10 min. If these fluids contained 103-104 CFU of bacteria likely to come from raw meat or poultry, the bacteria generally could not be recovered after entering the wood. If =106 CFU were applied, bacteria might be recovered from wood after 12 h at room temperature and high humidity, but numbers were reduced by at least 98%, and often more than 99.9%. Mineral oil treatment of the wood surface had little effect on the microbiological findings. These results do not support the often-heard assertion that plastic cutting boards are more sanitary than wood."
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I have a slightly different take on this. If all we're talking about here is a simple 10" x 15" rectangular shaped, long grain glue up, out of left over materials for a co-worker who intends to give it as a gift to her daughter - I'd either do it for free or a nominal cost. I think I'd chalk it up to good karma.:thumb:

But that's just me....
 
I have a slightly different take on this. If all we're talking about here is a simple 10" x 15" rectangular shaped, long grain glue up, out of left over materials for a co-worker who intends to give it as a gift to her daughter - I'd either do it for free or a nominal cost. I think I'd chalk it up to good karma.:thumb:

But that's just me....

I'm retired so have no co-workers. But, I have served on various public boards and am active in civic groups. Some of my best pen customers come from those entities.
Perhaps I'm not as charitable as you. But, I like making some money out of my shop and am not at all embarrassed to charge for my work.
OTOH, for folks close to me, I do have what I call a 'friends and family' discount. It is usually $5.00 per pen. I chalk that up to advertising and promotion and ask the f&f customer to not discuss the discount with others. Invariably I get referrals to other folks who buy at full price.
 
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