Butcherblock Grading
Butcherblock quality is determined by species of wood, color matching, defects, and the quality of the finish. Three grades are established. Grade One is the best, and is used exclusively at benchpro™. These grades are ascessed for the top and bottom separately.
Grading:
Grade A: Has no knotts, no discoloration or dark boards and no filler.
Grade B: Can have small knotts and minor discoloration.
Grade C: Can have large knotts, very dark boards and areas with fill material.
Materials:
BenchPro™ uses only 100% solid maple hardwood.
Other varieties and combinations of alder, ash, cedar and oak can be used to make butcherblock at a much lower cost. Examples of these boards are below:
The butcherblock boards in these two photos were offered to benchPro™ by an overseas manufacturer. They were way below our Grade A requirement and were refused.
Notice first the different kinds of grains, the mismatched colors, the knotts and the bad joint work. Brown, gray, pink, yellow, orange and red colored boards are shown. Nothing here is maple. At least four species are used in this board.
The butcherblock boards in these two photos were offered to benchPro™ by an overseas manufacturer. They were way below our Grade A requirement and were refused.
Notice first the different kinds of grains, the mismatched colors, the knotts and the bad joint work. Brown, gray, pink, yellow, orange and red colored boards are shown. Nothing here is maple. At least four species are used in this board.
This is a Grade C board. The dark colored board at the top has no grain, while the one below it is red, and the board below that has grain, but is red/brown in color.
Notice also the wide dark filled joint between the bottom boards, the row of about eight holes in the board second from bottom, the third from bottom seems too narrow, and is filled again with dark putty. It is hard to determine species of wood in a photo, but none of this wood is maple.
These photos of our products were taken of samples at the Asian manufacturer before shipment. Notice the width of the wood strips, the fine grain, better color match, the nice seams, and lack of knots. We receive them in these giant sheets, then finish them to your specifications in our Tecate, Baja plant.
