i purchased some charcuterie boards from sams last week and i want to engrave on them. but i need to know more about engraving on them. hope someone can help here.
first why does the boards have slots in the back of them?
after i engrave them, they should not be used for food on that side , correct?
what can i seal the engrave with?
if they want to use them for food, how do you suggest them to use them?
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I’ve seen slots before, but they’re for knives, which I don’t think works with those slots - maybe they also sold something to raise it up and they slid into that?
Wood is naturally anti-biotic, so you can still use the front (some disagree, so it’s a choice), but after engraving and cleaning, use food-safe oil (tung oil is fabulous stuff, Sam’s recommends raw/food grade linseed) in case someone decides to use it for food in the future 
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thank you for the info
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I always thought the slots were to help drain liquids away from whatever you’re cutting. I always rub my cutting boards down with a mixture of food-grade mineral oil and beeswax.
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This! That’s exactly what they’re for. That board is designed to be used for cutting meat.
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I thought that too - but the slots are on the underside (same side as the feet) so I disregarded it as a possibility 
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Oh…hmmm. Yes…the feet. I didn’t even notice them. You’re right. That’s odd, then.
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these already have some kind of coat on them, do i still use the oil on them?
I don’t think that slots like that are blood grooves because you couldn’t clean them properly. Blood grooves are usually rounded channels that are easy to clean.
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They probably don’t need to be coated now, except where you engraved - but the oil that is on it now will slowly fade, so it’ll need to be redone every once in a while. You’ll be able to tell when it’s getting dried out.
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Might be stress relief slots. That looks like it may be Acacia. Entirely possible that when they did the glue up they found other boards warping so they put slots in to relieve the board stresses so it was less likely to warp.
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This of course conjured an image…a really heavy-handed snacker… OR…a special charcuterie board designed especially for those who are suffering from ‘stress eating’.
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They are almost certainly just that, to relieve stresses in the wood as it naturally expands and contracts. Definitely not for collecting and draining blood.
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