Good wooden kitchenware care comes down to three habits: wash it by hand, dry it flat on its edge, and oil it before it starts looking thirsty. Skip any one of those for long enough and a board that should last a decade starts cracking, greying, or smelling faintly of old dishwater within two years. None of this is complicated, but it does mean unlearning a few things dishwashers and plastic cutting boards have taught you.
Why Wooden Kitchenware Care Is Different From Plastic
Plastic doesn't absorb water. Wood does. That's the whole difference right there. A rubberwood chopping board is 12mm of dense hardwood, and dense as it is, it still drinks in moisture through its open grain every time you rinse it. Left wet, that moisture swells the fibres, and repeated swelling and shrinking is what eventually splits a board down the middle. Dry heat does the opposite. It pulls the natural oils out of the wood, leaving it pale, rough, and more likely to crack. Caring for wood means keeping it in the narrow middle ground between those two extremes.
Washing Without Ruining the Finish
Hand wash, always. A dishwasher's heat and prolonged soak will warp a board in a handful of cycles, no matter how well made it is. Use warm water, a mild soap, and a sponge or soft brush rather than steel wool, which scratches the surface and gives bacteria more places to hide. Rinse it, then stand it on its edge to dry, not flat on a wet counter. A board drying flat dries unevenly, top and bottom at different rates, and that uneven drying is exactly the kind of stress that causes warping over a few months.
For something like the roti tray, which spends most of its life holding warm food rather than being chopped on, the same rule applies. Wipe it out after use, don't let it soak, and dry it properly before it goes back in the cupboard.
What Not to Do
- Do not leave any wooden board or platter soaking in the sink.
- Do not put it in the dishwasher, even on a gentle cycle.
- Do not store it wet against another wooden piece. Two damp surfaces touching stay damp longer.
- Do not use bleach or a strong detergent. It strips the finish and dries the wood out faster than plain soap.
Oiling: How Often and With What
Every wooden kitchen piece needs periodic oiling, full stop. Our boards, trays and platters leave the workshop finished in double-boiled flaxseed oil, a food-safe finish that soaks into the grain rather than sitting on top of it like a lacquer. That finish fades with washing, and when it does, the wood starts to look dull and feel slightly rough instead of smooth. That's your cue to oil it again.
A new board benefits from oiling once a week for the first month, then once a month after that, easing off further once you get a feel for how quickly yours dries out. Kitchens that run the exhaust fan a lot, or sit under direct sun for part of the day, will need oiling more often than a shaded counter in a humid coastal kitchen. Food-grade mineral oil or a food-safe wood oil both work well. Skip cooking oils like sunflower or olive. They go rancid over a few weeks and leave the board smelling like old cooking oil instead of clean wood.
To oil a board, pour a small amount on, spread it thin with a cloth or paper towel, let it sit for twenty minutes, then wipe off anything that hasn't soaked in. Do this on a dry board, never a damp one, or you'll trap moisture under the new coat of oil.
Pine, Rubberwood and Why the Wood Matters
Not every piece needs the same level of attention. The seasoned pine serving platters are kiln-dried before cutting, which helps them hold their shape, but pine is still a softer wood than rubberwood. It takes dents and knife marks more easily, so treat it as a serving piece rather than a cutting surface, and expect small marks to show up over the years the way they would on any softwood table. The heavier Design 3 platter, cut at 38mm rather than 25mm, resists warping noticeably better simply because there's more mass to move before it bends.
Rubberwood, used in the chopping board and the roti tray, is denser and holds a knife edge better, which is why it's the better choice if you're actually cutting on it day to day rather than just serving from it.
Signs You've Waited Too Long
A board that looks pale and feels slightly fuzzy to the touch has dried out and needs oil now, not next week. Small surface cracks at the ends are usually still fixable with a thorough oiling and a few days of rest. A crack that runs deep into the board, or a warp bad enough that the board rocks on the counter, is past what oil alone will fix. At that point, sanding it back and re-oiling is worth trying before you give up on it. What you generally can't fix is a board that's been through a dishwasher cycle or two. That kind of damage tends to be permanent.
What to Ask Before You Buy
If you're buying wooden kitchenware anywhere, not just from us, it's worth asking your supplier a few direct questions before you check out. What finish is used, and is it genuinely food-safe? Is the wood kiln-dried or seasoned before cutting, which affects how much it moves later? And is the piece solid wood all the way through, or a thin veneer over something else? A supplier who can answer clearly is usually one whose boards will actually last.
The chopping board starts under Rs 500, the roti tray under Rs 999, and the seasoned pine platters under Rs 999 as well. Our full range of trays, boards and platters sits in the kitchen collection, each piece built from a single named wood and finished the same way, in flaxseed oil, from the first piece to the last.
