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Guides & care
Practical advice from the workshop — how to care for your wooden boards, bowls and pestle & mortar, which timbers work best, what to give, and how every piece is made.
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How to Care for a Wooden Chopping Board
Wash, dry, oil and revive your wooden board the right way — a simple routine that keeps it food‑safe and beautiful for decades.
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How to Clean a Wooden Chopping Board: Smells, Stains and Raw Meat
Everyday washing, cleaning up after raw meat, lifting stains and smells, and what to do about black spots — all without the dishwasher or anything harsh.
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How to Oil a Wooden Board (and Which Oil to Use)
The right oil keeps a board water‑resistant and food‑safe — and the wrong one turns it sticky. Here’s how to do it properly.
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How to Season and Care for a Wooden Pestle and Mortar
Season it before first use, clean it without soap, and keep the wood nourished — a quick guide to a tool that will last for years.
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Wooden vs Granite vs Marble Pestle and Mortar: Which to Buy
Granite grinds hardest, marble looks smartest, wood is the quiet all‑rounder. An honest comparison of what each one is actually good at.
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The Best Wood for Chopping and Serving Boards
Oak, sapele, maple or beech? A maker’s honest guide to which hardwoods make the best boards — and why grain direction matters as much as species.
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Which Wood Is Food Safe? What to Use and What to Avoid
Most close‑grained hardwoods are safe for food — but not all of them, and the species is only half the story. What to use, what to avoid, and why.
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How to Build a Charcuterie Board
Three meats, three cheeses, three extras — the simple 3‑3‑3 rule for a generous, beautiful grazing board, step by step.
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Christmas Cheese Board Ideas: What to Buy and How Much
Stilton at the centre, something hard, something soft, and all the festive trimmings — what to buy, how much per person, and what you can do the day before.
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Wooden vs Plastic Chopping Boards: Which Is Better?
Hygiene, knife edges, lifespan and the dishwasher question — an honest comparison from someone who makes the wooden kind.
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How to Fix a Warped or Cracked Wooden Chopping Board
A bowed board can usually be flattened, a rough one sanded back, and a small split repaired — here’s how, and when to call it a day.
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How to Care for a Wooden Bowl
Fruit bowl, salad bowl or something purely for the shelf — the few habits that keep a hand‑turned bowl looking the way it did the day it was made.
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What Is Odie’s Oil? (And Why I Finish Every Piece With It)
The finish on everything that leaves the workshop — what it’s made of, why it’s food‑safe, how it’s applied, and how to top it up at home.
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Handmade Wooden Gift Ideas UK: Boards, Bowls & Vases
For the cook, the host, the new home and the couple — wooden gifts that get used every week rather than kept in a drawer, plus when to order.
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How a Wooden Bowl Is Made: From Log to Lathe
Storm‑felled tree to finished bowl — finding the wood, cutting the blank, turning, drying, sanding and oiling, and the features I choose to keep.
Handcrafted to last a lifetime.
Every board, bowl and pestle‑and‑mortar set is made by hand in Nottinghamshire, finished with food‑safe Odie’s Oil, and shipped anywhere in the UK — the cost agreed with you based on the order.
