This 20ร36 walnut wood butcher block is a great size for a smaller kitchen with smaller countertops. Each of our 2โ thick cutting boards and butcher blocks are made with the perfect balance of function and style. The durability and visual appeal of each of these tools is exactly why both professional chefs and home cooks alike adore them for years and years without replacing them whatsoever.
Walnutโs swirling fine grain pattern makes it not only beautiful but incredibly sturdy as well. Walnut wood even keeps your knife stable as it cuts with the direction of the wood fibers. That is why this wood is used most commonly for cabinetry, countertops, veneers, car interiors, guitar bodies, gun stocks, hardwood flooring, furniture, construction, and countless other projects including art and handmade items.
On the Janka hardness scale, Walnut ranks 1,010 lbf or 1,010 Janka. With this said, it is harder than cherry wood but not quite as hard as maple wood. This is why it is used commonly not just for hardwood flooring and construction but for handmade items including cutting boards and butcher blocks. In fact, walnut actually continues to harden even more with age making it a great solution for any kitchen setting. This is also why our boards and blocks can easily handle daily use and potential fall or water damage without drying out, snapping, cracking, chipping, or warping for years.
Walnut wood is also self healing which means it eliminates one of the most common food safety issues associated with cutting boards altogether. Cheaper wood, marble, and plastic butcher blocks acquire deep grooves on their surface that trap food particles and contaminate your food leading to food poisoning and foodborne illness. However, with walnut wood, these grooves repair themselves and thus eliminate this issue.
On top of walnut woodโs durability and visual appeal, walnut wood is also impeccably cost-effective and eco-friendly likewise. The fact that walnut wood can be grown nearly anywhere and with little overhead cost makes it fairly priced while its use in place of less sustainable materials leads to its eco-friendliness. This is why it is perfect for cutting boards as it is sure to be well worth its price in longevity alone. This particular board with the end grain build will last forever.
All dimensions are approximate sizes. It is best to work with the natural characteristics of the wood first and the dimensions second.
Locally hand-selected American hardwoods โ ethically sourced, never imported commodity lumber
Milled up to 2″ thick โ nearly double the industry standard, which means less warping, longer life, and a board that feels substantial in hand
Waterproof glue construction โ joints won’t fail from repeated washing or moisture exposure\
Pre-oiled with food-safe mineral oil and arrives ready to use straight out of the box
Handmade in the USA by skilled craftsmen in Nampa, Idaho โ not mass-produced overseas
Precision laser engraving available โ clean, permanent, and reviewed for accuracy before it touches your board
Fully customizable: choose your wood, size, juice grooves, handles, rubber feet, and engraving
30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee – your investment is protected
Every order is individually wrapped and packaged to arrive in perfect condition via FedEx or UPS
Free ground shipping to all lower 48 states โ no minimum, no hidden fees
Step 1: Placing Your Order
Your journey begins when you place an order through our website.
Each order is treated as a made-to-order piece, not a mass-produced item pulled from a warehouse shelf.
Once your order is received:
We review size, thickness, wood selection, and engraving details
Your board is scheduled into our production workflow
Any custom engraving is carefully verified for accuracy and layout
This ensures nothing moves forward until every detail is right.
Step 2: Selecting the Right Woods
The foundation of a great cutting board is the wood itself.
We only work with hardwoods known for durability, stability, and food safety.
We source our lumber locally from trusted suppliers including:
Hudson & West (Meridian, Idaho)
High Desert Hardwood (Eagle, Idaho)
Each board begins with hand-selected lumber that is:
Kiln-dried to proper moisture levels
Inspected for grain quality and structural integrity
Matched for color consistency and grain flow
Whether itโs maple, walnut, cherry, or a blended design, wood selection is done intentionally
โbecause the right wood blend directly affects longevity, resistance to warping, and knife-friendliness.
Step 3: Precision Milling & Assembly
Once the wood is selected, itโs milled and prepared for assembly.
Our process includes:
Planing each piece to exact thickness
Aligning grain direction to reduce future movement
Arranging strips for both strength and visual balance
Boards are then glued and clamped under controlled pressure to ensure:
Seamless joints
Long-term structural stability
No weak points between wood strips
Many of our boards are crafted at 2 inches thick, which significantly reduces the risk of warping
and provides the solid, professional feel our customers expect.
Step 4: Shaping, Sanding & Detailing
After assembly, each board is shaped and refined.
This includes:
Precision cutting to final dimensions
Routing edges and juice grooves (when applicable)
Multi-stage sanding to achieve an ultra-smooth surface
We donโt rush sanding. Each board is progressively sanded to eliminate tool marks,
soften edges, and create a surface that feels just as good as it looks.
Step 5: Custom Engraving with Accuracy
If your board includes engraving, this step is handled with exceptional care.
Our engraving process focuses on:
Accurate depth for clarity without compromising strength
Clean, sharp lines that wonโt fade over time
Careful placement to complement the boardโs grain pattern
Every engraving design is double-checked before cutting.
Once engraved, the board is lightly sanded again to remove any raised fibers while preserving crisp detail.
This ensures your engraving looks intentionalโnot rushed or burned in.
Step 6: Sealing & Conditioning
Proper sealing is critical to a cutting boardโs lifespan.
Each board is saturated with:
Food-safe mineral oil
Finished with a protective board butter blend
This process:
Penetrates deep into the wood fibers
Enhances natural color and grain contrast
Creates a moisture-resistant surface that protects against cracking and drying
We never use shortcuts or surface-only finishes.
Our boards are conditioned multiple times to ensure long-term protection right out of the box.
Step 7: Final Inspection & Packaging
Before packaging, every cutting board undergoes a final hands-on inspection:
Surface smoothness
Edge consistency
Engraving clarity
Overall craftsmanship
Once approved, your board is packaged specifically for safe shipping:
Wrapped to protect against moisture and impact
Secured to prevent movement during transit
Boxed to arrive in the same condition it left our shop
When purchasing a custom cutting board or butcher block from our company, you can feel confident knowing that all of our products are hand-made in the USA by our dedicated in-house team. Our company, Mahogany House Woodworks, is located just outside of Boise, Idaho and has been creating high-quality wood products for customers across the United States for over 20 years. We back our cutting boards and butcher blocks with a 30-day guarantee to make sure your investment is protected. All of our cutting boards are built using locally sourced and hand-picked woods.
Bon Appรฉtit!
Do you want a special message, initials, or picture engraved on your cutting board? We offer custom engraving as a great add-on for all of our custom cutting boards and butcher blocks. Our team can help make your new cutting board feel so personalized.
Our Engraving Process Explained
Before any engraving happens, we start with the foundation: the board itself. Every board we produce is milled, sanded, and finished in-house using carefully selected hardwoods known for stability and grain clarity.
Why does this matter for engraving?
Wood is a natural material. Grain density, hardness, and movement vary slightly from board to boardโeven within the same species. We account for those differences before engraving ever begins. Boards are fully acclimated, flattened, and finished to ensure the surface is perfectly level and stable. A flat surface equals consistent engraving depth and razor-sharp detail.
Precision engraving can only happen on a properly prepared board.
We Digital Proof for Exact Accuracy
Every engraving begins digitally. Text, layouts, and logos are carefully prepared using professional design softwareโnot automated templates.
This step allows us to:
Ensure proper spacing and alignment
Scale designs precisely to the board size
Preserve fine details in logos and fonts
Avoid distortion caused by wood grain direction
**For custom logos and detailed artwork, we optimize the design specifically for wood engraving, not just screen viewing. What looks good on a monitor doesnโt always translate cleanly into hardwoodโso we adjust line weight, depth, and spacing for real-world results.
Accuracy at this stage prevents errors later.
CNC Laser-Guided Engraving – The Best of the Best
Our engraving is performed using CNC-controlled, laser-guided equipment that allows for extreme accuracyโdown to fractions of a millimeter. This ensures:
Clean, consistent letterforms
Even engraving depth across the entire design
Perfect symmetry and alignment
But hereโs the part most people donโt realize: precision machines still require skilled human oversight.
Every wood species engraves differently. Hard maple behaves differently than walnut or cherry. We manually adjust engraving depth, speed, and power based on:
Wood hardness
Grain density
Board thickness
Desired contrast
This isnโt a one-setting-fits-all operation. Each engraving is dialed in specifically for the board itโs going on.
We Practice Depth Control Which Protects the Board
One of the biggest mistakes in wood engraving is going too deep. Over-engraving weakens the board, creates rough edges, and makes the surface harder to maintain.
We engrave deep enough for clarity and longevityโbut never so deep that it compromises the boardโs integrity. This balance ensures:
The engraving remains readable for years
The board stays structurally strong
The surface can still be properly maintained with board butter and oil
Accuracy isnโt just about looksโitโs about long-term durability.
Clean Edges, No Burn Marks
Laser engraving on wood can easily leave burn marks, excessive charring, or fuzzy edges if not handled correctly. We take extra steps to ensure clean, professional results:
Controlled power settings to minimize scorching
Post-engraving hand inspection
Light finishing passes when necessary to remove residue without softening detail
The result is crisp lettering with natural contrastโnever harsh or overburned.
Hand Inspection, Every Time
No engraved board leaves our shop without a final human inspection. We check for:
Correct spelling and layout
Proper alignment and centering
Consistent depth across the entire engraving
Smooth edges and clean finish
If something doesnโt meet our standards, it doesnโt ship. Period.
View some of our cutting board engraving examples below:
Weโre so convinced that youโll be satisfied with your new cutting board or butcher block, that we proudly offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all of our boards. Our boards are all hand-built in the USA to ensure the highest level of detail, strength and durability needed to last. Whether you order a maple, walnut, cherry board, or have us build you something entirely unique and custom, your investment is backed by our guarantee to ensure your satisfaction.
Step 2: Selecting the Right Woods
Step 3: Precision Milling & Assembly
Step 4: Shaping, Sanding & Detailing
Step 5: Custom Engraving with Accuracy
Step 6: Sealing & Conditioning
Step 7: Final Inspection & Packaging
