Cutting boards are a simple idea – a few strips glued together to make a panel, preferably flattened, with perhaps some shaping and design to make it look like it’s not just a piece of wood. I’ve made quite a few of these pieces-of-wood-glued-together-to-make-a-bigger-piece-of-woods, and in reality the process has been surprisingly complex. I want to share some of my experience, the process for building a cutting board and some of the subtle complexities I’ve encountered along the way.
As always, these are more difficult by hand. You’ll find a thousand videos on making cutting boards with machines, and if you use machines, everything I’m about to talk about is completely irrelevant. So if you want quick and repeatable, go get a jointer, planer and tablesaw. If you want skill and effort with a healthy dose of frustration, read on.
As always the project begins with stock selection. You can go buy fancy dimensioned wood for the cutting boards you want to make, but my goal with these is usually not spending money and using some of the random scraps I have that can’t be used for anything else. I stick to the familiar hardwoods and as long as the grain isn’t too wild and is clear of knots, we’ll call it usable. That being said you have to assess each board for any chipout or dings that will cause problems later on, the boards should be fairly clean and easy to square up. A big ask for stock coming from the scrap pile, I know.
Once I had the stock that was long enough, could be put together for an adequate width, and was close enough in thickness, I orient them. I make different combinations to see what looks best, and choose the best face for the top (“best” meaning clearest, least likely to tear out, easiest to plane). Sometimes if one piece was particularly wide I would rip into narrower strips and arrange them that way.
One important point here is to try orienting them with the grain flowing in the same direction for ease of planing later on. If you can and want to, you can orient the growth rings in opposing directions too but I have not tested this thoroughly enough to know if it makes a clear difference. In my experience, if wood wants to cup, it will cup.
One other detail to be mindful of at this stage is the likelihood of a clean glue line between each strip. If there is even a slight chip out of a corner, especially that will be on the top face of the board, you’ll have to plane past it to get a dead clean glue line from end to end. I’ve learned this the hard way rushing through a project and missing it in the orientation stage. On the bottom you also want to do your best with this, some minor chipping between strips may be acceptable (I fill the small ones with super glue, let it set and trim it flush) but the best bet is to avoid it completely.
When it’s oriented, I start dimensioning. I work from one side to the other, flatten the first face of a strip (checking for flat, straight and true, no twist) then square and joint an edge. Obviously the edge facing inwards, to become a glue joint. On to the next, I flatten a face then square and joint the edge to complete the first glue joint. From there I square and joint the opposite, using a marking gauge if it’s noticeably out of parallel. Rinse, repeat until all the glue joints are snug.
Now there are two ways you can proceed – go ahead and glue it, keeping the top flat and leaving the unevenness on the bottom to be later flattened, or thickness them to match and keep it flat in glue up. In my experience the latter is less effort, but not a particular time-saver.
One other thing I’ve learned is that there’s no need to pile the glue on, a thin strip spread evenly does just fine. It’s going to squeeze out no matter what and I’d rather keep waste to a minimum.
So once it’s glued, you have a panel. I start with flattening the bottom, checking for flat, straight and true as I go. Really the bottom is the important side in terms of usage, if it’s twisted it will rock around on a countertop. If the top is twisted or out of flat… it will still work. After flattening the bottom I make sure the thickness is close enough to not be noticeably out of parallel and flatten the top. Even though it’s less important, I still aim for dead flat and true, but at this point it’s not the end of the world.
After planing both faces, I clean up the outside edges making them close to square and fairly straight, then crosscut and clean up the end grain. Now I move on to shaping and I will usually put a heavy bevel on the bottom side. I mark in maybe ¾ of an inch from the edge all around, mark up ⅜ on the sides, use my coarse jack plane and start planing to my lines. It can be tricky to plane dead on the angle but once you get close to the lines it’s easy to finesse it with a finer plane, a finely set #4 or #5, to even it out along the length and flatten it across the bevel. I work with the grain on the long edges then come to the ends. This is easier since you just have to watch your corner lines and once they meet the corners and come in at an even angle, you’re there.
After bevelling the bottom I will take a block plane and lightly chamfer all the sharp corners. I round the corners where the edges meet with files and sandpaper, carrying the light chamfer around the bends. Once that’s done, it’s ready for sanding and I give a light pass all over with 220 grit.
At this point I used to give it one or two coats of oil and call it done but I have started giving myself more time to finish it. I want to try and get some of the movement out before I gift or sell it so I’ve started to let it sit for a few days in the apartment, see how it moves, then come back and plane it again to flat. After doing that, I’ll wet it lightly to raise the grain then sand and oil it.
So that’s the process of construction but there are some things to consider. First of all, unlike building furniture, this is a working surface. It could possibly take some use and abuse, be exposed to liquids and get washed and dried repeatedly. We can do our best to combat this in the construction – letting it move, raising the grain – but this is different from a piece of furniture that is mostly static. This type of board will probably eventually be worn out, depending on use. Care and maintenance will go a long way to extending the life of this type of cutting board – proper finishing, drying, and regular refinishing. It has to look good, but also has to be clean and food safe with no chances of any contamination of food. Also if someone is paying good money, it should last some decent amount of time. I don’t have the answers or clear cut solutions to these issues but they can at least be taken into consideration during the making process.
Scratch that, maybe the solution is to call it a charcuterie board to be used 1-2 times per year for the fancy meat, cheese and crackers and sell them for $100. Maybe then they’ll last 50 years or more.
One other consideration with open porous woods like oak and ash. Depending on the cut of wood, the pores can be more exposed. I don’t worry about the usability of these woods, once they’re cared for and properly cleaned I don’t think there are any risks in terms of food, but those open pores could trap dust when sanding.
This is a simple (but not easy?) style of scrap wood cutting board. There are lots of different types and ways, probably less complicated from a hand tool perspective – especially single pieces cut into interesting shapes.. It’s surprisingly complex, a good skill builder and as a working surface there’s a lot to consider. Sure I could knock together some jigs to make the process more efficient and repeatable but I enjoy making them – it builds my skills, I learn new things, I can practice the basics and always encounter new challenges, even with familiar woods. And it’s always satisfying to see the smile on someone’s face who can take it home and enjoy it as a feature in their kitchen. It’s nice to get some money for the work you put in, but it’s better when you know someone is happy with, and impressed by your work.
Building for others always involves a lot more dimensions to the work than DIYing for yourself. Read about some of my thoughts on it soon – stay tuned.
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