Some woods are better than others. Generally you want a dense hardwood. Walnut, maple, cherry, white oak are commonly used, although some people can have allergic reactions to walnut. I don't know if it would be a problem with cutting boards. Red oak and some varieties of mahogany, for example, are open grain woods and not the best choice. Bacteria can grow in the pores of the wood and contaminate your food. If you use these woods, take extra care when cleaning, probably good advice regardless of the choice of wood. As for a finish, many use mineral oil. It's readily available, cheap and non-toxic. Reapply often to keep the finish fresh. For assembly, use a moisture resistant glue, like Titebond III or maybe Gorilla Glue. Don't recommend putting it in the dishwasher.

Thanks, casey and bobs, for your responses. I think I will stop at 150 grit and then apply mineral oil. Yes, it will be a working board, so it'll get sliced and diced daily. Today I looked at new cutting boards being sold at Williams-Sonoma, and they were quite rough--certainly no smoother than mine is now. Their display tables, on the other hand, had sealed butcher block tops that had been sanded, as Casey describes, to a silky sheen. Thanks again!

I'm about to get an edge-grain butcher block to replace the top of my island, too (it's currently stainless, and since our new counter will be stainless I figured I should go w/ something to warm things up a bit). I'm tired of having to wash the myriad of cutting boards we have, too. Basically any hard wood's good. Maple, yes, but I'm looking for something darker. I was considering brazilian cherry (jatoba) although I'm concerned it might be too red looking. It might just depend on the particular batch (for lack of a better word). Also considered pacific madrone which is local but it's very stripy unless you pay a lot more to cherry pick (I'd probably rather have stripes than too red), and I'm also willing to get reclaimed wood if its prior use was food-grade, e.g. wine vat oak which is fun w/ its occasion rose-colored stripe thrown in. Not as hard on janka scale but harder than some. Also would consider mesquite, teak and possibly edge-grain bamboo though it's lighter than I like. Here are some color examples: http://www.endurawood.com/material-options/ Here are color examples (some very different looking though same wood) as well as their janka ratings: http://www.devoswoodworking.com/Wood_Countertops_Samples/WoodsAvailable.htm This is the place that sells cherry-picked madrone. Uber expensive but beautiful beautiful wood (and very hard): http://www.thejoinery.com/about/commercial/counter%20top/index.php A nice example of jatoba (brazilian cherry): http://lumberjocks.com/Straightpiped/blog/11961 HTH!

Growing up, my mom had a built in cutting board. I don't remember squares, so it must have been long runs of wood. I sure am glad I grew up before the media invented germs. We cut everything on it and just cleaned it with Windex. That's all. I don't recall her ever oiling it, never salting it, never, God knows, sanding it. Just Windex. Then the towel was hung over the base cabinet door for the next use. We baked on it, made sandwiches for lunch on it, cut cold-cuts on it, chicken, stew meat, dough, I do mean everything. Probably my own fingers at times, since I cut myself a lot. I do recall opening a can and slicing both thumb and index finger trying to get the lid off. On that counter... I just made my own 24" and 14' wood counter tops (10-12' pieces of maple). Can't call them butcher blocks because I don't want to rile the purists. I haven't done anything about sealing them yet, because I want to color them. My trouble is maple splotches and I want to do it right. Anyway, by the stove, I'll probably cut on it. Where it goes into the dining area? Probably not.