Why I make my own cheese boards

It’s a question I’m asked a lot. Why not just buy them, resin them and be done with it. They’ll be cheaper and less time consuming.

Yes they might be slightly less time consuming but not necessarily cheaper. It’s hard to get a quantity of quality mass produced boards. Yes I could go to another Irish crafter but I may a well double my end sale price. Don’t get me wrong these crafters also have to make money on their hard work. Many mass produced boards are made from acacia or olive wood or even a mix of woods. These are treated with a variety of oils and finishes and quite often aren’t a single piece of wood but pieces bonded together.

Resin doesn’t stick to oil that well and after time the resin will just peel off. The alternative is to spend so much time sanding before you even start to get down to bare wood. Have you also noticed mass produced boards aren’t very thick, usually about 1/2” thick.

Then there’s the sustainablity of the wood. All the woods for my boards are sourced locally (I have an amazing wood guy!) and come from trees that are either storm damaged, felled by licence or just at the end of its life. All wood is kiln dried, so no warping. With Irish native woods the variety of the colours and hues of the timber grain is amazing, something you just don’t get with foreign woods. Plus all my boards are at least 1” thick so a solid, durable, handcrafted piece.

I love working with wood and I think if you’re going to say something is handcrafted in Ireland, it actually should be as it says on the tin!