John Boos

A blacksmith’s anvil block that a butcher wanted a copy of, turned into a company that has been making wood work surfaces in the same Illinois town since 1887. What we carry is the maple board range and the oil and cream that keeps it alive.

Shop John Boos

1887

A blacksmith shop in Effingham

1905

The oldest Boos block still known

34 in

Across, standing on three legs

1966

Helped write the NSF wood standard

An anvil block, and a butcher who wanted one

Conrad Boos opened a blacksmith shop in Effingham, Illinois in 1887. Standing in it was a solid round slab of sycamore on three legs, which he used as a base for hammering hot iron. A local butcher saw it, understood immediately what it would be worth on a shop floor, and asked for one of his own. Conrad’s son John filled that first order, and the company has carried his name ever since.

The first block was sycamore because sycamore was what happened to be standing in the shop. The boards we sell now are northern hard rock maple, which is what Boos settled on and has built with since.

From the company history

1887

Conrad Boos opens the blacksmith shop in Effingham, Illinois.

1892

Adelbert Gravenhorst buys the business. It has not been in the founding family since.

1900

A Boos block is shown at the Paris World’s Fair.

1905

The oldest Boos block still known to exist is turned. Thirty four inches across, on three legs, one of them cut deliberately short so juices run off one side.

1941

Four fifths of production is turned over to the war effort.

1965

The first all stainless table leaves the plant.

1966

Boos works on the NSF standard for wood food contact surfaces.

1980

Fire destroys the metal plant. It is rebuilt.

2017

A new wood plant opens in Effingham, on the same ground.

Nothing leaves as scrap

Offcuts and sawdust from the wood plant are burned in the plant’s own boiler, and that boiler heats the dry kilns and the buildings. Of everything Boos publishes about how it runs, this is the part that is checkable: the wood that does not become a board becomes the heat that dries the next one.

Thickness is the whole argument

The Boos board range is one piece of maple logic repeated at different weights. Chop-N-Slice is the light board at three quarters of an inch, for a small counter or a second board. The R-Board is the reversible maple board at an inch and a half. The RA-Board is the same footprint at two and a quarter inches, and that is the one that stops sliding, stops flexing, and outlives the kitchen it was bought for.

Beyond that it is a question of what you cut. The Au Jus board carries a groove cut around the edge for roasts. The BBQ board does the same job in a size that fits next to a grill.

What we carry

Boards, and what keeps them alive.

R-Board and RA-Board in 18x12, 20x15 and 24x18, with a grooved RA at 20x15. Chop-N-Slice at 10x10, 18x12 and 20x15. The 24x18 Au Jus board with its juice groove, and the 18x12 Professional BBQ board.

Then the care range, which on a wood board is not an accessory: Mystery Block Oil, the Penetrating Block Board Cream with beeswax, a round applicator for putting it on, the combined maintenance kit, and a stainless cleaner for the tables and stands.

Two things worth knowing before you buy. Boos warrants finished goods for one year against defects in material and workmanship, and unfinished goods carry no warranty. And NSF certification on Boos products is granted model by model rather than across the brand, so it is a question to ask about a specific board rather than assume from the badge.