A Cut About the Rest

Two walnut boards marked up for cutting

It's been a while since I have posted. I've been busy in the shop as of late, however. I got a lot of positive feedback and interest from the first cutting boards I made. For a few years I have been eager to see if I could make some money selling furniture and other things that I've made, so I decided to wade in slowly by doing some cutting boards and putting them up for sale. I decided to keep the design minimalistic, so the emphasis was on the beauty of the wood, not things like fancy handles etc.
For functionality's sake, on larger boards I decided to add a hole to make it easier to pick up and carry.
So off I went.
I bought  few pieces of walnut and also grouped together some cutoffs and scraps I had around the shop. All told I would have about 25 cutting boards. The process was similar to the one used on the furniture I'd made, only on a smaller scale. Also, to save time and make things easier, I grouped together the steps, so I would do one step at a time on all the boards.

Cut down to rough size 

You can view and buy cutting boards I've made on my etsy page here https://www.etsy.com/shop/whWoodworker. I also plan on selling at local craft fairs and festivals.

Cutting boards after cutting them to size, drilling holes, and a few rounds of sanding. They'll get one final sanding at 400 grit before a food-safe beeswax and mineral oil finish is applied. 

I designed a logo and had a brand made of it, which is placed on the underside of every board.

This is a large 15" x 24" custom walnut cutting board I made. The customer also requested a maple butterfly key.

A beautiful example of one of my live edge walnut cutting boards. I love the balance between sap wood and old on this one.

Cutting it Close

Christmas was getting closer, and I hadn't gotten any gifts yet. I was working in my shop and saw a live-edge walnut board I'd bought a few years ago. I immediately thought about the nice cutting boards I'd seen online and thought it would be a nice, easy, handmade gift I could make.
I did a little research, as I'm prone to do, and got started. I decided I would make one for my parents, one for my in-laws, and one for our home. With a roughly 48" board, I thought 16" was a nice length.
The process was pretty straightforward: cut the boards to length, plane both sides, drill the handle on the drill press, ease all the sharp edges, and finally do the finishing process. One board had a knot in it with a small crack, so I decided to do a rosewood butterfly key to keep moisture from getting into the wood and also to stabilize the crack. I used Titebond III for the key, which is a food-safe glue.

Prior to cooling, the finish took on a nice, yellow glow

For the finish, it had to be first and foremost food-safe, followed by attractive, yet somewhat durable. I found a nice recipe online for an easy finish consisting of 1/5 all-natural beeswax and 4/5 mineral oil. I decided that I would make enough finish to give a small jar of extra finish along with the cutting board, since a beeswax finish should be renewed often to maintain its ability to be waterproof. I heated the mineral oil on medium-low heat and slowly dissolved the bars of beeswax in it. Once the beeswax was fully emulsified, I let the mixture cool just a few minutes. Then, using a clean, lint-free cloth, I wiped the oily mixture on each board. Soon after wiping it on, the substance took on a waxy appearance. After leaving it sit on the boards for a few minutes, I took a new, clean cloth and buffed the excess wax off. I repeated this process for each board twice. I was very happy with the results. I hope to find other small projects to do as holiday gifts in the future.

I liked that each board had its own characteristic grain, despite being from the same board 

The small rosewood butterfly key was a nice touch