Thank you for the information on the wear. One of the reasons I like the woodboards it that i can scrape or sand out the cut marks if they get too ugly, can't do that with plastic ones.
I actually have some maple, left over from a locker room bench installation at work I was thinking of using.
A friend of mine showed me a chopping block off a naval warship (WW II). Solid hard maple. It was about 36" x 36", dove tailed end grain about 18" thick.
Ric