The holidays are always a fun time in the workshop. This season I’ve made a custom slide for a kids Sprite Climbing Triangle and this end grain cutting board. Cutting boards are a great way to make something beautiful and useful with the off cuts and extra pieces from larger projects. I ended having the perfect , chunky pieces of Cherry, Maple and Walnut. Cutting boards are not difficult to make, but there’s a decent amount of time involved, mostly waiting for glue to dry to arrive at the finished piece.
People love the checkerboard pattern in custom end grain cutting boards. I achieve this look by laminating strips of wood together like a large panel, and then cross cutting strips at the thickness of the final board. With the strips cut, they can be arranged with the end grain up and by flipped over every other one, the checkerboard pattern is created.
I like to curved all four sides of end grain boards to add a little shape to the piece and I finish the build by routing finger notches to serve as handles.
After a lot of sanding, branding it with my logo and softening the edges with a 1/4″ roundover bit, the piece is ready for oil. I finish cutting boards with a generous amount of mineral oil followed by butcher block butter (a food safe oil/wax finish).
Whitehurst Custom Woodworking 