Basswood for cutting board?

[Denialxa]

I found a great deal on Basswood panels at a local lumberyard. Can I make cutting boards out of it? I know they are primarily used for sculpting and carving but technically it is a hardwood. So going back and forth to try it out.
Any suggestions would be helpful.

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[awerby]

Are you talking about a board for cutting food on? No; basswood would be a poor choice for that, because it's so soft, with loose fibers. The distinction between hardwoods and softwoods has nothing to do with hardness; it's about whether the tree makes a different kind of wood in summer than in winter. For example, balsa wood is a hardwood, but it's very soft and light. Douglas fir is a softwood, but it's fairly hard (especially the old growth, with less space between the rings). Try "rock" maple, which is a hard hardwood. Use the basswood for something else.

[christy42]

I use basswood often for accent strips, because of the nondescript grain. You can cut it "any old way", and sometimes come up with some iridescence.

I heat bend often in builds, and I'm still learning. I'm building a hull with pawlonia, and found that it responds to heat bending BETTER than cedar, which came as a surprise. I sense that it has a very low lignin content, and I had thought that woods with a higher lignin content would respond better. Maybe I'm heating up the lignin faster in this low-density wood.