The choice between maple wood vs. rubber wood cutting boards matters a lot in your food preparation processes.
The wood material of a cutting board impacts its qualities such as pricing, durability, strength, and appearance.
A maple wood cutting board is what you need if you want a board that will last for a long time.
You need a rubber wood cutting board if you want a board that is both durable and easy on a knife edge.
This exhaustive maple wood vs. rubber cutting board comparison highlights the distinctions and advantages of both helping you make informed choices.
By the time you’ll finish reading through this review, you’ll know the right board for your kitchen.
You will also learn about the pros and cons of both cutting boards.
Two maple wood cutting boards
Maple wood Vs. Rubberwood Cutting Boards: Maple Wood Cutting Board
Maple wood is a dense hardwood with a neutral or light tone color widely found in North American forests.
Hard maple or sugar maple, is a star option among the wood choices for making cutting boards.
Maple wood is one of the most famous wood options on the market.
It is a high-quality material employed in woodworking projects when strength and durability are valued factors.
Maple wood tops its value up by also being an option when aesthetics matter.
Maple wood is very dense with tightly closed grain and tiny pores. The small pores are effective for preventing bacterial growth and accumulation of dirt.
Maplewood is a highly durable wood option for making high-quality cutting boards. It is slightly more durable than rubberwood cutting boards due to its hardness and density.
Pros
- Ability to withstand pressure: The high Janka rating implies that maple wood cutting boards can withstand high levels of pressure without sustaining any damage.
- Easy to clean and maintain: Maple wood is easy to clean, and it does not require any special maintenance. The surface is very smooth, so there is no need to bother about hiding dirt between wood fibers.
- Superior hardness: In the grades of hardwood, maple is one of the hardest varieties. Because of this Superior hardness, maple works for various purposes, including maple flooring, hockey sticks, and other heavy-duty purposes.
- Consistent grain: Most woodworkers love maple wood because of its consistent grain alignment. It contains fewer imperfections than many other kinds of wood.
- Susceptibility to bacterial growth: The tight grain lightning discourages bacteria brought between the wood fibers.
- Degradation: Maple wood is less prone to fungal or termite degradation if well-handled and stored. Proper seasoning and treating the wood piece will also reduce its chances of degradation.
- Light-colored wood: Maple uses a wood finish and stains very well due to its light tone.
- Shorter growing time for maple trees: Maple wood grows and matures in a relatively shorter period than other kinds of hardwoods like walnut, cherry, and oak. This factor makes the maple tree an eco-friendly wood source.
- Keeps its value: Wood users place a high value on furniture and wood made from maple. Unlike rubber wood which is more abundant, maple wood is usually more expensive and valued for its versatility.
Three shapes of maple wood cutting boards
Cons
- Hard on knives: Because of the hardness of maple wood, it is not very gentle on knife edges. Using a maple wood cutting board will require frequent sharpening of your kitchen knives.
- Does not cover stains: Maple wood cutting boards don’t do so well with stains. This is because of its light-toned coloration.
- Prone to distortion: They are also bad at hiding knife marks. In other words, it will lose shape over time due to distortion caused by knife injuries during meal prepping.
- Lack of grains: If you are hoping to add aesthetics to your wood project using wood grain patterns, then maple wood is not the best option for you. Maplewood does not have a lot of grain patterns.
- Many grades: The vast variety of Maplewood grades and types is a source of confusion to wood furniture users. The different grades of Maplewood offer different qualities of cutting board, and you will need to have deep experience and familiarity with the wood to decipher the right quality you are looking for.
- Expensive: Maplewood cutting board is usually more expensive than rubber wood. This is because maple wood generally offers better quality furniture in woodworking projects.
The Rubberwood Cutting boards of different shapes
RubberWood Cutting Board
Rubberwood trees are an eco-friendly wood source. The reason is that rubber trees are only cut into wood after serving their main purpose, which is rubber production.
Rubber wood has just about the right density to make it an ideal option for cutting boards. It can withstand a reasonable amount of pressure.
Rubber wood is fairly hard with an equally bright tone, just like Maplewood.
However, unlike maple wood cutting boards, rubberwood has loose and porous grains, which increases the risk of cross-contamination.
While rubber wood is the source of latex which is very resistant to moisture, the lumber produced from the tree offers the opposite quality. Rubberwood soaks up moisture easily.
Pros
- Plentiful wood: Rubber is an abundant tree in many parts of the world, especially Asia.
- Environmental friendliness: As rubberwood is only cut down after serving its purpose, using them for wood is not considered to have any harm to the ecosystem. After all, the initial way of disposing of exhausted rubber trees was by burning them. This method creates more space for fresh rubber trees for more rubber production.
- Versatility: Rubberwood is versatile and used for a variety of purposes.
- Durability: Rubber wood cutting boards last for a long period.
- Cheaper: Rubberwood is more cost-effective. It is less expensive than Maplewood.
Used, warped rubberwood cutting boards
Cons
- Smaller planks and boards: one significant downside to rubber woods is that they cannot make large plank boards. This limits its use in furniture making, but it, however, makes enough plank for cutting boards.
- Warping and twisting: Rubberwood is prone to warping and twisting when drying. It is important to consider this property when handling your rubber wood-cutting board.
- Porosity: Rubberwood has very loose grains and therefore takes up moisture easily. It is not very resistant to moisture.
- Hard to clean: Rubberwood has open grains that can hide food bits between fibers. This poses great difficulty during cleaning. It is also a good place for bacteria to habit and grow.
- Regular Maintenance: Rubberwood requires regular seasoning to saturate the wood fibers and reduce the chances of bacterial growth.
- Prone to degradation: Rubberwood is prone to degradation if not treated sooner. Termite attacks easily degrade rubber wood
Quick Comparison Table
| Features | Maple wood | Rubberwood |
| Durability | Maple wood is a very dense material and offers high durability. | Rubber wood is also very durable but not as durable as Maplewood. |
| Cost | Maple is more expensive than rubberwood cutting boards. | Rubberwood is abundant, and this makes it less expensive than Maplewood cutting board. |
| Porosity | Maple wood grains are tightly aligned. It does not have open fibers that can harbor bacteria. | Rubberwood is a very porous material. It is at high risk of cross-contamination and moisture uptake. |
FAQs
Different types of cutting board
Maple wood Vs. Rubberwood Cutting Boards: What Material Should You Not Use for Cutting Boards?
Materials for making cutting boards should fall between a marked range of hardness.
Extremely hard woods like mahogany, teak, or rosewood are not suitable for cutting boards.
Similarly, extremely soft woods such as pine or cedar are too fragile for making cutting boards.
Maple wood Vs. Rubberwood Cutting Boards: What Cutting Board is Best for Raw Meat?
Overall, wooden boards are the best material for cutting raw meat. Plastic or glass boards are great, but wood is more favorable to knives; it offers better aesthetics and will last longer than other materials.