CARE INSTRUCTIONS
WARNING
Obsessive Board Care Syndrome (OBCS) is a known risk of using our products. Symptoms include chronically soft hands, a smirking (but appreciative) spouse, and timeless cutting surfaces.
Extreme cases can also result in other obsessive behaviors including knife sharpening and cast iron pan seasoning.
There is no known cure for this tragic affliction.
The only known therapy for OBCS is to enable it. Keep plenty of boards, take care of your friends’ and families’ boards when you visit. For serious cases, assemble an emergency kit to keep on your person at all times including Shark Wax, Burlap, and a CWW knife honing strop (currently in development, but keep an eye out!).
OBCS is real. Be careful out there.
Our Boards are as easy to maintain as you allow them to be. One of the principles of “Not a Knot” is taking care of what you have so it does not end up in the landfill and you do not have to spend to replace it. So we take all forms of maintenance pretty seriously- especially the ones that are also just damn satisfying.
Washing
NO boards in DISHWASHERS. Period. Please. Makes me cringe to think about it.
Just wash the board surfaces- no soaking. Then a quick rinse and wipe dry or air dry in a rack to save towels. Soap is optional if you only cut up lettuce and carrots, by the way.
Further note on dishwashers- if you or your family are tempted to put large items (big boards, pots & pans, etc) in a dishwasher at all- have a conversation with them about reducing your household hot water and power usage by simple and quick handwashing of space hogging items. Run some warm water in one of those pans and use it as a small sink for soapy water.
The kid that comes hope harping about environmental destruction but is not interested in hanging up their shower towels or handwashing a few large items is not seeing the whole picture. Conservation starts small.
Oiling/waxing
We recommend a simple “waxing” once every 10 times you wash the board. Wash the board and let it air dry overnight, then follow these steps:
Use a 6” square of brown paper grocery bag as your applicator. Yes this sounds a little odd. And yes you can use a soft cloth. But we really like the paper method as it does not result in oily rags that require hot water and detergents or a garbage truck. Plus it gives an awesome finish. Win. Win.
Crinkle up your paper, dab it in a conservative bit of Shark Wax.
Apply the wax on all surfaces of your board. Rub the beejeebers out of that board using a circular pattern, friction will help the wax soak in deep. And the brown paper acts as super fine sandpaper to make your board ridiculously smooth again. After a couple of minutes of rubbing (which if done properly will also soothe the person wielding the wax), prop the board in a dish rack or similar position to allow all sides to dry. Move to your next board if you are batch waxing.
Wait 10 min, or wax 4 more boards to be as productive as possible.
Buff with a fresh dry crinkled brown paper bag (again, uber smooth). Another EXCELLENT buffing media is burlap. Note that buffing brown paper can be moved to applicator paper when it gets saturated.
Repeat to ease OBCS symptoms as needed.
A final note on waxing with brown paper- a win/win/win:
Roll your saturated used brown paper around a wax soaked cotton string fuse like a fat cigar. Be creative. These “Annointment Joints” or “Dubious Rolls” are excellent fire starters. Put a handful of them in a ziplock snack bag and go camping. Or scratch your prepper itch. Or use them for stocking stuffers. They look like aged leather and smell like a honeycomb. No doubt a down side exists- but damned if I know what it is*.
*Probably don’t forget them in your jacket pocket when you visit your dipshit brother-in-law in prison.
Eldercare:
It has been said (quite correctly I might add):
Time Hates Art.
All things come to an end. When your board is cracked or seriously warped or broken, we have a few suggestions for how to honor it’s service.
-Repurpose: Anyone with basic tool skills can slice your board up into coaster sized pieces, for example. Or use it for a plant stand.
-Sawing the edges off can be a solution to cracking. We do it all the time when horrific errors happen in the build process. IE: slipped while cutting the juice groove again? DAMMIT! Guess we’ll make that one smaller.
-Sacred fire? Use it to start the Pyre for Gramps?
Additional tips:
-Be careful storing an oily buffing cloth or paper. It takes a pile of rags and perfect conditions, but spontaneous combustion is a thing.
-Use small paper/ burlap/ cloth bits for oiling and buffing. 6”x 6” is more than enough.
-Store your oily cloth in a ziplock or airtight container in the freezer for reuse.
-Do NOT leave your oily applicators or buffing media on a sunny windowsill.
-Send us a pic of your repurposed wax container and we’ll include a free tin with your next board purchase. Storing your buffing burlap in an empty Shark Wax tin- in the freezer...our favorite picture to receive!