Our Story

The idea for Barrel Buddy came from a camping trip. A friend of mine started cutting food directly on the blue barrel lid — and apparently, that's just what everyone does. I watched plastic shavings getting into the food and noticed how chewed up the lid was from years of this. I looked at the recessed lid and thought: why doesn't anyone make a cutting board that fits in here? It would sit perfectly.

That was the idea. And then I sat on it for a few years.

When I finally decided to build it, it took a lot of iterations to get right. The first version had a steel core embedded in the wood with a magnet on the underside of the lid — the idea was that you could stick the board to the top of the lid or tuck it underneath for storage. It sounded great in theory, but strong magnets cause problems with phones, credit cards, and electronics, and embedding steel made the board weak because there wasn't enough wood on either side of the insert. I also tried velcro, but it made one side of the board unusable and was awkward in practice.

In the end, the best version was the simplest one. A hardwood cutting board, precision-cut to drop into the recessed lid and sit flush. No magnets, no velcro, no attachment system. Just a board that fits. Both sides are usable, it's coated with a food-safe finish, and you can get a custom engraving on it if you want.

We were the first to bring this product to market, and as far as we know, the first to come up with the idea. We're pretty proud of that.