Handcrafted Chopping Boards • Made in Estonia
Handcrafted Chopping Boards • Made in Estonia
From Forest to Kitchen
Natural HandcraftedChopping Boards
We use Estonian oak, sourced, of course, legally and sustainably. Our oak can be local to Kõrgepalu, or from further afield, it all depends on where our suppliers feel the best examples of good wood are to be obtained.
Our oak logs are initially air dried naturally outside for several years. Think of this as rather like letting a lovely roast joint of beef “rest” for a while out of the oven, they are always the better for it. We then select a trunk from our stockpiles, and discuss with a local sawmill the best planes to cut it to plank, giving thought to the way the “live edge” will appear on the cut planks, and any obvious knots and features of the trunk that can add to its visual appeal.
Once we have the planks, typically, 3 to 4 meters long, we store them horizontally in stacks that allow the air to circulate all round the plank on all surfaces, to get the maximum drying effect in a natural environment. This also allows us to inspect the full length of the live edges and plane cut grain surfaces, and it is at this stage that we “mark out” potential board lengths and discuss with customers how their bespoke boards will take shape.
As a final step, a board that has been cut to the desired customer dimensions will be kiln dried, to take the wood moisture content down to around 9-10%, ideal for the final finishing, treating and presenting stages of a finished board.
Our boards are heavy, oak is a lovely, solid, satisfying and durable wood to work with. Larger boards can weigh up to 25 or even 30kg. As you would imagine, shipping is not simply the cost of a postage stamp; we pack and prepare for shipping with great care, we use several layers of packing to ensure surfaces are protected, and the integrity of the board as packed and shipped is preserved and intact when you unwrap it at your home. These beautiful boards are, in our opinion, worth the wait to design, make, dress and ship.
About Kõrgepalu
Kõrgepalu is a tiny village in the largely undiscovered and empty southeast corner of Estonia. It is beautiful down here, heavily forested, rolling hills, green and idyllic.
The Kõrgepalu Estate was once the site of an old manor house, long since burnt down and replaced by a handsome wooden school house. The estate also features what was once the community hall (with a stage and, at one time, even used as the village cinema), a lovely old coach house, a very old (nobody quite knows its true age) ruined stone stable block (now used for BBQs and parties), and a traditional Estonian smoke sauna. More recent additions include an observatory to take advantage of Estonia’s wonderful dark skies, and a beaver lodge made by some elusive but most welcome furry new residents in one of the ponds.
There are many hundreds of trees on the estate; oak, ash, maple, larch, and spruce, and a range of pine. There are three intersecting avenues of maple that were laid out as a formal tree park at one point, although nature has claimed back the park and unless you know exactly where to look, it can now be difficult to see the formal avenues in amongst all the new tree growth.
Restoration work on the estate buildings is ongoing, a slow and painstaking task. Completed early, however, were the woodworking workshop and coach house, used as the basis for our chopping board manufacture.
About Our Boards
We find that boards are best, visually and practically, at between 8cm and 6cm thick, with smaller boards of course being the thinner size.
It is important to consider your kitchen environment, many people are often tempted by the largest most spectacular option, but bear in mind the typical new “European” style kitchen tops are usually at most 63cm or so deep, and often as little as 55cm. We recommend you “mock up” a board to your desired dimensions using some cardboard, to get an idea of how much space it will occupy, and how it might look as it sits on a worktop.
Bear in mind also that board depth varies with the natural shape of the cut board, and in particular two live edges, front and back, don’t have 90′ corners and straight edges.
If you are after certainty of dimensions and appearance, we aren’t going to be for you! You will do better to go to shops like IKEA, and many others, they manufacture excellent, reliable, durable boards with perfectly straight edges. They are superb value, they work, they last, and who knows, there may even be some in our kitchen.
We aren’t pretending everyone else is evil and bad, of course not, we just want you to bear in mind that our boards are different, quirky, unusual, unique and that’s part of the charm. Well, we think so, anyway.
An often asked question is how we treat the boards. Good question, too. We treat boards with a food-safe mineral oil, allowing each application to soak thoroughly into the board, and this is repeated three or four times, to achieve the desired appearance. Depending on customer preferences, we can also apply a final oil-beeswax coat, to give a little extra sheen to the finished board.
You will see some boards with knots, and, depending on how the knots present, those may be filled with a (food safe and durable) resin. Some people like this style, some don’t. You can decide for or against, that’s the beauty of an iterative design process for each board.
Will the boards move, crack, expand? Well, perhaps, it depends how you treat them. If you soak them, abuse them, keep them in a humid, hot environment, then yes, they won’t like it. Remember, natural oak is just that, natural. If you treat the boards right, meaning don’t soak them, don’t overheat them, don’t forget to oil them regularly, then they will last for decades. Give them to your children one day.
100% Sustainable Estonian Oak
A cut above the rest
You might be looking for the usual Visa and Mastercard credit card payment symbols. You won’t find them. We deliberately opted to avoid all that. Bank transfer, or cash of course, it is.
What do they cost? Yes, this is a fair question of course. You are going to be a little frustrated at not seeing prices against photos of items, but we simply don’t work that way. As a rough guide, the larger boards, at around a metre wide, will be around £300-325, plus shipping. Smaller boards, consuming less oak, will cost less. No, they aren’t cheap, are they. The cheap (and perfectly good) ones, as we have said before are in IKEA and other excellent kitchen shops.
Made For You
Designing your board
We will need to have an idea of the size and shape of board you need. It can be vague, don’t worry about that. By all means search images of other boards for help, and we can then review what you are looking for with our inventory of oak board. Do give thought to how it will look and fit in your kitchen environment, and we suggest you use cardboard mock-ups to visualise how the board will look in your kitchen environment. This process of selecting a board cut with you often involves a lot of photos back and forth, a lot of marking out with tape measures and even a few splinters and scraped knuckles at this end, not to worry, that’s part of the process. Eventually, we manage to settle on a cut from a board that you like, and we can begin.
Our boards have at least one “live edge” – this is, the curved edge of the trunk’s exterior, minus the bark. Why don’t we leave the bark on? Because bark will detach from the wood over time, particularly in the differing heat and humidity environment presented by a kitchen, and also, whilst you may think (and yes, you may even be correct) that a dark “real” bark edge looks good, it is, if you think about it, a place that will trap food, and be next to impossible to keep clean and hygienic. So, our live edge is the natural contour of the edge of the oak, below the bark. The “front” edge of our boards should be a live edge. The side edges are sawn and straight. the rear edge, depending on the size of the board we have agreed with you, can be the other side live edge of the trunk, or, for smaller boards, a third cut and straight edge.
All boards are, self evidently, different, that is part of the joy of this process. Real oak chopping boards are perhaps not the artefacts for you if you approach life too precisely. Relax, try not to get too stressed by nature’s quirks, and live a little!
Order Yours
Let's design your chopping board
Our chopping boards are only available by order. Please send us your details below and we’ll be in touch to discuss your order.