Hand holds for cutting board

[bmuir]

I am building a couple of cutting boards as gifts and wondered what the best way of creating hand hold cutouts in the ends would be. The boards will be hard maple, 1-1/2x12x18. I'm looking to do something like this:

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrow...der_id=1744784

Is this just a 3/4-inch dado blade stack raised into the end of the board. Not sure how to safely hold the board down on it's end while you raise the blade-- two strong lads?

Thanks for the help.

Thanks,

Bill

[RayintheUK]

I wouldn't do the hand holds like that, Bill - too easy to trap gunk in there and more difficult to clean. I do mine on the router table, using a 1" coving bit:



OK, so you can only use one side - but I still think this is preferable and so much easier to make. You were kidding about the dado stack, right?!

However, if the central hand hold is your chosen style, drill followed by router clean-up would be my method.

Ray.

[LarryG]

Is this just a 3/4-inch dado blade stack raised into the end of the board.

My guess is that it was done on a router table, using a slotting/rabbetting bit. That's certainly how I'd do it if I wanted the handholds centered on the ends.

If you like Ray's suggestion, but want the boards to be "double-sided," you could cut matching coves on both sides, using stop blocks to make sure they are aligned with each other.

[Tom Miller]

Or, how about Ray's cove bit (although a smaller one, e.g. 3/4") on the end grain? It would be much less "gunk-trappy", while being much closer to your original design.

Regards,
Tom

[Warren]

I do that cut with a cove bit when I'm making faux (cool word) feet on small chests and jewelry boxes. Just mark the stop and start points on your fence and start cutting.

[Pappy]

Even if you found a way to safely hold the board in position and raise a dado blade into it, the maple would burn on both sides of the cut.