Kitchen Project: This cutting board, with the end grain showing on top, harkens back to the old style butcher block.
Cutting Board
Having the end grain exposed makes for a much more durable cutting surface. To create a contrasting design element, I used both maple and cherry for the board. If you can't find cherry you can use red oak or any other contrasting hardwood. However, avoid using softwoods such as pine or fir. I have also included a groove around the edge for easy lifting.
The cutting board is made from slices of glued-up boards that are re-oriented, then glued together again. The first step is to cut the strips of wood. From the maple board, rip four 1 1/2" pieces and one 3/4" piece. From the cherry board, rip three 1 1/2" pieces.
Lay out the strips ensuring that the 3/4" piece of maple is on one end, and the other pieces are laid out as shown in the above photo. This will create the mosaic pattern for the board.
Apply a generous amount of waterproof wood glue (such as Titebond III) to the mating edges, smoothing the glue to ensure it covers the entire surface. Clamp the strips together, making sure they lay flat and that the top surface is flush along the entire glued-up board. This is important to reduce the amount of surface planning you have to do in order to create a smooth surface.
Lay out strips with sawn edges facing up
Apply glue liberally and smooth over to avoid gaps
Position, glue, and clamp flush
After half an hour, scrape off any dried up glue, but don't remove the clamps. Let the glued up board cure overnight.
Run the assembled board through a thickness planer, taking off only 1/32" at a time until you have a smooth surface. Repeat for the other side. Don’t take off any more than required. (Note: if you don't have access to a thickness planer you can use a belt sander or a jack plane).
Trim one end of the assembled board square on your table saw. Set the rip fence 1 1/2" from the blade and use it as a guide to cross-cut the board into 1 1/2" wide strips. Use a push-stick and blade guard for safety. Discard the last piece, which will be less than 1 1/2" wide.
With the strips cut, you can now assemble them into the cutting board. Flip every second strip end-for-end to alternate the joints and create the pattern with the cherry strips.
Reposition the cut strips to create pattern
Once the strips have been positioned, apply glue to the matching surfaces. Clamp the strips together, making sure they are flush on the sides and on the top surface. Use a clamp every 4" to 6".
Again, remove dried up glue after half an hour, then let the block dry overnight. Trim the ends on the table saw or with a hand plane. No matter how carefully you glue the strips together they will be slightly uneven. Smooth the top and bottom surface of the cutting board with a random orbital sander or belt sander. Start with #50 grit to take care of the most uneven parts, then work your way through #80 and #120, finishing with #150 sandpaper.
Glue and clamp flush
Brush dust off the surfaces between grits. To make the finger groove around the cutting board, set up a 3/4" bullnose bit on your router table so that it extends 1/4" from the top of the table and position the fence so the bit is exactly centered on the width of your cutting board. Carefully rout around all four edges of the cutting board to form the finger grip.
For easy lifting, rout groove
Sand the edges of the cutting board, knocking off the sharp edge on the top and bottom.
Cut each of the four corners at 45º, 3/4" in from the end, in order to eliminate the sharp corners. Sand the cut ends smooth.
Be sure to use a food friendly finish. I recommend you apply a liberal coating of vegetable or mineral oil to all surfaces of the cutting board and allow it to soak in for several hours. Wipe clean. Repeat periodically to maintain protection.
Use of Canadian Woodworking's Website and It's Content
This website is presented with the understanding that:
The authors, editors and related web personnel are not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information on this website, nor for any errors or omissions;
This website is not engaged in rendering professional advice/services; and
Any and all content submitted by this website's users is in no way an expression of the beliefs or opinions of the owners, webmasters, authors and editors.
Canadian Woodworking disclaims all liability for any claim in relation to:
• any matters or factors outside of its control, including the availability or unavailability of the website and digital content due to the availability of the Internet, or telecommunications or other infrastructure systems; for any reasons including but not limited to power outages and maintenance.
The owners, webmasters, administrators, authors and editors, expressly disclaim all and any liability to any person, whether a user of this website or not, in respect of anything and of the consequences of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether whole or partial, upon the whole or any part of the contents of this website. Please exercise caution when working with any tools or machinery. Follow common safety rules and precautions as outlined in any manuals related to the equipment being used. If advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
Use of Canadian Woodworking site and Forum
By posting on this site and forum, the poster grants to Canadian Woodworking Magazine/Website the unrestricted rights to use of the content of the post for any purpose, including, but not limited to, publishing the posted material, including images, in print or electronic form in a future issue or issues of Canadian Woodworking magazine or related Canadian Woodworking products, and to use the post for promotional purposes without further compensation, as well as the right to use the poster's name in a credit along with the post.
CanadianWoodworking never shares, sells or rents your information to any third party without your permission.
This statement explains how we collect information from you and what we do with that information.
What this Privacy Policy Covers
This Privacy Policy covers CanadianWoodworking.com's treatment of personally identifiable information that CanadianWoodworking.com collects when you are on the CanadianWoodworking.com site, and when you use CanadianWoodworking.com's services. This policy also covers CanadianWoodworking.com's treatment of any personally identifiable information that CanadianWoodworking.com's business partners share with CanadianWoodworking.com.
This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that CanadianWoodworking.com does not own or control, or to people that CanadianWoodworking.com does not employ or manage.
Information Requests and Use
CanadianWoodworking.com collects personally identifiable information when you use certain CanadianWoodworking.com services, when you visit CanadianWoodworking.com pages, and when you enter promotions or sweepstakes. CanadianWoodworking.com may also receive personally identifiable information from our business partners.
Personally identifying information is information that can be used to identify who you are such as: name, mailing address, email address. To enter certain areas of the site, you will be required to register and provide information about yourself. This information is for the purposes of Canadian Woodworking and helps us to tailor the site to best meet the needs of our audience.
CanadianWoodworking.com also automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser including your IP address, CanadianWoodworking.com cookie information and the page you requested.
CanadianWoodworking.com uses information for three general purposes: to customize the advertising and content you see, and to fulfill your requests for certain products and services.
Promotions
The personal information that we retain is what is provided by you voluntarily. We use it to send you information about Canadian Woodworking and its products or to correspond with you regarding your subscription. If you are a subscriber we need this information to be able to deliver you our product(s) and service your subscription.
By completing a form on this website, you will be able to receive email correspondence from Canadian Woodworking. These emails may include information on upcoming events or special offers for subscribers. If you do not wish to receive email correspondence please email orderdesk@canadianwoodworking.com and ask to be removed from our email list. Every email that we send to you will include an "opt-out" from receiving future email correspondence.
Aggregate information is information that cannot identify you personally. We collect information on our subscribers that may be used in summary reports presented to our advertisers. This information helps them to better understand our audience and provide advertisements that are more likely to be of interest to you and your organization.
Our intention is always to gather information that will help us serve you better and never to gather information without your knowledge.
As with most websites, we do log web visits. This information, however, does not have a link to you personally. These logs help us understand the needs of our audience and the areas of our site that you do or do not find useful. When you simply browse our site, no personal information is being collected. We may disclose this non-personal information to third parties such as sponsors, clients or advertisers.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
CanadianWoodworking.com will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone.
CanadianWoodworking.com will send personally identifiable information about you to other companies or people when:
We have your consent to share the information;
We need to share your information to provide the product or service you have requested;
We need to send the information to companies who work on behalf of CanadianWoodworking.com to provide a product or service to you. (Unless we tell you differently, these companies do not have any right to use the personally identifiable information we provide to them beyond what is necessary to assist us.);
We respond to subpoenas, court orders or legal process; or
We find that your actions on our web sites violate the CanadianWoodworking.com Terms of Service or any of our usage guidelines for specific products or services.
Cookies
CanadianWoodworking.com may set and access CanadianWoodworking.com cookies on your computer.
Cookies are small text files that most Web sites, including canadianwoodworking.com place on your computer. Cookies help us identify your interests. They also prevent you from having to register repeatedly on canadianwoodworking.com or from repeatedly seeing the same ads.
Canadianwoodworking.com is not able, and does not wish, to use cookies to track your activities on the Web outside of our site. And no cookie delivered by us will interfere with the operation of your computer.
In cases where there are links to other sites, Canadian Woodworking recommends that you review their organization's privacy policy, as once you have left our site you become subject to the privacy and security policies of the new site.
Third party advertising
If you submit your name through a form on our website to request information from an advertiser or third party, canadianwoodworking.com is not responsible for any marketing or other use of your name by that third party.
Security
In certain areas CanadianWoodworking.com uses industry-standard SSL-encryption to protect data transmissions.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
CanadianWoodworking.com may amend this policy from time to time. By using this site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Canadian Woodworking reserves the right to make changes to this policy at any time. Please check back periodically to review any changes.
Questions or Suggestions
If you have questions or suggestions please contact us.
