Cutting boards. What was I thinking?!!!

[atgcpaul]

I had planned to gift cutting boards to my extended family last Christmas but that didn't happen. This year I was determined to do it. I've lost track of how much time I've spent at it already. These are some good sized boards so I have gone through a lot of lumber--which is good because I have too much--and I don't think I've ever worked my body this hard on a project doing such mundane things. Probably 6 hours just standing in place milling lumber. Maybe an hour ripping boards and cumulatively 3+ hours gluing boards together. Another 8 hours sanding, sanding, and more sanding and that's with a drum sander. I'm only doing edge grain boards, not end grain ones. I can't even imagine how much more work those would be!

Tomorrow I've got to route juice grooves in some of them and then I think I can finally apply the mineral oil. Got to have it all done by Friday night because we're celebrating with everyone on Saturday this year.

[leehljp]

I generally start Christmas projects two weeks too late and end up buying presents! . I know everyone will be happy with them. Post a picture of them if you can.

[atgcpaul]

Cutting boards are definitely a good use of so-so lumber. I used a bunch of 6/4 walnut and 5/4 cherry that were too short or two gnarly for a project, but when cut into strips worked perfectly for cutting boards.

The large boards are generally (none are the same size) 15x20 and the smaller ones are around 12x15. I only routed juice grooves in the large boards. The hand holds were routed using a 1/2" cove bit. The boards can be used on both sides but the rounded side of the handhold indicates the "top" with the better looking grain.

I've got one generous slathering of mineral oil on here now. I'll do a coat each night through Friday. I made 9 total not because that's how many families I'm gifting to (although it's close) but because this is how much "scrap" I milled.

[BadeMillsap]

Looks like the hard work paid off! Nicely done!

[ArtworksIII]

Really nice!!! Happy holidays too

[garymuto]

Nicely done! I'll bet routing those handles in the end grain was a lot of fun.

[atgcpaul]

Nicely done! I'll bet routing those handles in the end grain was a lot of fun.

Thank you.

I made one cutting board last year. For that handle, I used my router's edge guide and plunged a core box bit into the end grain. Worked well. When I tried it last night, not so much. The router got tippy and I didn't route a straight groove. I'm thinking last year I must have clamped on an extra board to widen the base. So that board lost an inch of length and I went to the router table with the cove bit. The cove bit gave a nicer profile and it was definitely easier to cut on the table rather than free handing it with the core bit.

Routing the end grain wasn't a problem but since I had already invested so much time into these I was REALLY careful to think through the operation. Careful layout lines on the boards and the router fence. A few trial runs with the router off to make sure nothing was in the way. There are some burn marks in the corners of some of them and some of my juice grooves have burns--especially the cherry ones--but I know if I tried to "fix" them by raising the bit a hair, I'd eventually bugger them so I called it a day and now they truly look homemade.

My Aunt and Uncle are hosting Christmas at their new house. The main dish this year is called "meeshay" which in my mother tongue means "long tail". It's a thick noodle dish that features pickled mustard greens, bean sprouts, a variety of different condiments like black bean sauce and fried garlic, and chopped pork that is usually roasted with soy sauce and some other spices. It all gets mixed by hand in a LARGE stainless steel bowl, and the running joke is that the designated mixer hasn't washed their hands beforehand which is why it tastes so good. I'm expecting that a lot of pork is going to get chopped on these boards this weekend. Maybe I'll bring some sandpaper and extra mineral oil to spruce up the boards before people head home.

[poolhound]

Nice job on those boards. Having done a few big batches of boards over the last few months I know the sanding is a real pain. I give mine a good number of coats of mineral oil and then finish with 2 or 3 of this butchers block conditioner. It has sp,e wax added which helps protect the surface.

[cwsmith]

Those are really attractive. Shows a lot of good, hard work. I'm sure everyone on your Christmas list will be thrilled.

Thanks for the post,

CWS

[gerti]

This are really nice, lucky family!

[Bill in Buena Park]

Awesome cutting boards Paul! Great wood selection and design.

[atgcpaul]

No good deed goes unpunished!

Everyone was happy to receive a board today. I made 9 total and handed out 8. I wasn't sure how many individual households would be there. I thought I would actually get to keep one for myself. But then one of cousins piped up and said she didn't get one but didn't want to make a stink. I felt so bad. I thought she was still living with her parents but turns out she actually moved out on her own 3 years ago (I should have known, but forgot) so she got the last board which made her day and I was happy to do with many apologies. I was ready to declare it a Christmas miracle.

That's not the end of it. I got home and my Mom texts me that one of my other cousins didn't get one. I told her she did but my dumb luck, I gave it to her twin sister from California. I wasn't expecting her to be there let alone wanting to lug a board back on the plane.

And as I'm mentioning to my wife that I need to make another board, she says to me, "What about one for us?"

After I waxed the boards last night (I had a beeswax and mineral oil mix from before), I decided to further customize the boards

[LCHIEN]

For quick lining up the number punches I clamp a bottom guide to the work. Some of the letters/numbers are not vertical w.r.t the flat sides on the cheapo eBay sets but in general I can get a better bottom horizontal line and better vertical alignment using the bottom guide. As letters have different widths, its still a trick to get the horizontal spacing good.Gotta be real careful with the I and numeral "1".