Cutting boards are a valuable, and, at times, under-appreciated kitchen accessory. In this plastic age, we have been overrun with sick, milky-white slabs of questionable origin, claiming to be safe and clean. After a few weeks, you end up with a scarred, savaged scrap, un-saveable, collecting crud in all those crevices. The alternative? A solid, reclaimed hardwood cutting board made from old flooring, hand-rubbed with tung oil to a high, non-toxic sheen. In a pinch, it’s solid enough to chock the tires on your inlaw’s RV, or knock a kitchen intruder unconscious. It’s also cheap (nearly free!), beautiful, and can be continually refinished, lasting for generations.
I put this cutting board together with oak and maple floorboards pulled from old Chicago bungalows. Save what you can from alleys, building sites, and salvage shops, get some good glue, and set aside an afternoon. If you are lacking some of the heavier equipment needed — thickness planer, pipe clamps, router — you could laminate it together using the technique found in this table I did a few years ago: http://www.instructables.com/id/Scrap-Table/