Cutting Boards

As the holiday season approached, I wanted to make something that would be both beautiful and practical to gift to my close family members. I settled on cutting boards. The idea came from my wife, as her grandfather was in desperate need of a new one and she suggested I make one.

I had never made a cutting board before but jumped in head first.

After researching what types of wood are appropriate for use as a cutting surface, I selected several 10’ boards of walnut, cherry and hard maple.

From there I decided that all the cutting boards would be approximately 16” long and 12” wide. The width is currently dictated by the width of my wood planer (https://amzn.to/2rmjyCI). In the future I may try to upgrade the width capacity with other techniques.

I set to work cutting to length all the pieces of walnut, cherry and hard maple. I then ran each piece through the joiner (https://amzn.to/2rlYmNg) to get a flat side and face.

With two flat sides I used the table saw to rip the boards into different thickness coming up with a good looking design for the board.

Once the design was roughed out, and the pieces laid out, I glued them all together and clamped them over night.

Once the glue was dry, I removed the boards from the clamps and ran each board through the planer. This gives both sides of the board a parallel and flat surface which I could sand to the final finish.

I sanded each board from 120 grit up to 400 grit, using a wet and sand technique in between coarseness changes to allow for the raised grain to be sanded smooth. This will prevent the cutting board grain from raising the first time the boards are rinsed or washed.

After I was happy with the sanding, I applied a coat of FDA approved food safe oil and then wax. The result is a cutting board that I think looks great and will last for years in the kitchen.

These started off as gifts, but I enjoyed the process so much I now am offering the boards for sale. You can help support the Workshop by purchasing one of these boards here: https://www.ccsandsonsworkshop.com/shop/

UPDATE: Several months later and after regular usage, I am happy to report that these boards seem to be holding up very nicely!

Oil used: https://amzn.to/2Sqfi14

Wax used: https://amzn.to/2CCdigC

Cutech Planer: https://amzn.to/2Sq9jcq

Cutech Joiner: https://amzn.to/2SoWtvh

Pipe clamps: https://amzn.to/2CElehx

Parallel clamps: https://amzn.to/2BMSsJO

Wood Glue: https://amzn.to/2BJvsvt

Sanding Disks: https://amzn.to/2CCboN8

Random Orbital Sander: https://amzn.to/2BIHTaM

Branding Iron: https://budgetbrandings.com/

Miter Sled: http://www.in-lineindustries.com/products/

Until next time,

Thanks for reading.