Plane or sand laser engraved surface?

[David Masters]

My daughter asked me to repair a cutting board that had failed on all but one glue line after a trip through the dishwasher. After gluing the board back together, there are minor discrepencies in the flatness of the board. Normally I'd use a surface plane to flatten the surface, but one one side of the cutting board is a large laser engraving with her's and her husband's name and the date they were married. I don't think it will take more than a couple of passes to plane the board flat, but I'm worried that I might tear out around the laser engraving.

Any opinions on whether I can safely plane the surface, or should I just be safe and sand the board flat?

Dave

[Jim Koepke]

Hard to say without knowing how deep the engraving and type of wood. Pictures can also help.

We have a rule in this house, wooden items never go in the dishwasher.

Maybe test plane on the non-engraved side.

Sharp blades and minimal cuts always help prevent tear out.

Even so, tear out can happen. It happened to me working on some ash today. At least it can be hidden inside a glued up block when my project is done.

jtk

[Robert Hazelwood]

Is the surface end grain or edge grain? If end grain, tear out shouldn't be a big concern except for spelching on the ends (so don't take through shavings, or clamp on a backer board to support the far end). A low angle plane would be nice for that. If edge grain, the grain direction will probably be different in every section, so I'd want either a bevel-down plane with a closely set chipbreaker, or a plane with a high cutting angle. And in any case, keep the blade very sharp and the shavings thin.

[Pat Barry]

I assume the engraving is fairly light, none-the-less, you need to answer the question of what is more important, the engraving or the cutting board. To me it sounds like the engraving, therefore, just leave it alone. I think all you can do at this point is make things worse. What ever you do to sand or plane will just fade the engraving

[David Masters]

... you need to answer the question of what is more important, the engraving or the cutting board...

As I was removing the excess glue, I was thinking the same thing and the engraving is certainly the more important. Here are some pictures:

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The last picture shows the worse of the seams. The engraving appears to be no more than 1/32" deep and probably less. The board appears to be face grain Walnut, but my guess of the wood type is only based on color. I planed the edges preparing for glue-up, I found the wood stable and as easy to plane as pine. The only other wood I've played with has been White Oak.

Thanks, Dave

[george wilson]

They need to use a CUTTING BOARD JACK: Jack up the cutting board and put a new one under it. :) And,keep the new one away from the dish washer. Wood is not indestructible.

Why do you want a laser,or otherwise engraved cutting board? Using it will destroy the design anyway. Perhaps a small design engraved around the perimeter at most. It would stand a chance of holding up.

And,NEVER put your sharp knives through the dishwasher either. Or even wash them in hot water. It will make them more dull. Professional butchers do not wash their knives in hot water.

Now,all of you can argue about that for some time!!:) But,it is TRUE.

[Jim Koepke]

And,NEVER put your sharp knives through the dishwasher either. Or even wash them in hot water. It will make them more dull. Professional butchers do not wash their knives in hot water.

Now,all of you can argue about that for some time!!:) But,it is TRUE.

But George, some of us have as much of a sharpening fetish as we do about the sharpness itself. Washing in hot water gives us another reason to bring out our sharpening equipment. :eek::D

Though I do agree about the dishwasher. It seems to do more than just dull the knives. It seems the soap particles can ding the surfaces.

If there are wooden handles on a knife... See my, and George's, rule about not putting wood in the dishwasher.

jtk

[george wilson]

Of course,if you like the white,Sun bleached look of drift wood,you can keep putting things in the dish washer!!:)

[Pat Barry]

As I was removing the excess glue, I was thinking the same thing and the engraving is certainly the more important. Here are some pictures:

331251 331252 331253

The last picture shows the worse of the seams. The engraving appears to be no more than 1/32" deep and probably less. The board appears to be face grain Walnut, but my guess of the wood type is only based on color. I planed the edges preparing for glue-up, I found the wood stable and as easy to plane as pine. The only other wood I've played with has been White Oak.

Thanks, Dave
I think the glue up looks good and I would hate to see you lose detail in the engraving. The way I see it, they probably do all their cutting on the other side and over there you can plane away without worry.

[Jim Koepke]

Of course,if you like the white,Sun bleached look of drift wood,you can keep putting things in the dish washer!!:)

It even lightens those dark rosewood handles. :eek:

jtk

[Mike Null]

Use sandpaper. The plane is likely to tear out the edges. If you don't want to use sandpaper try a card scraper.

Don't put wood in the dishwasher.

[David Masters]

Hopefully my daughter has now learned this lesson. As she was growing up, I taught her many things, but it never occurred to me that someone would put a cutting board in a dishwasher. The fault is mine of course for not anticipating the need to cover the topic.

;) - Dave

[george wilson]

Tell her to not put in the oven,either.:)

I read about a woman who cooked her little dog from the inside. She put him in the MICROWAVE to dry his fur after a bath. My God! The things poor animals will suffer at the hands of humans. A young woman's cat fell over dead. She was a vegetarian,and insisted that her cat also be one.

[Tom Vanzant]

My daughter knew better, but her hubby didn't. He ran two different cutting boards through the DW. I was able to salvage the one I had made for her, but she sent the commercial board to the fireplace.

[David Masters]

They use the back of the board for cutting as you have suggested. I thought that planing the engraved side would give me more control, but I am worried about tear out as the blade goes over the design. I have a small Jet drum sander that I can use to run the engraved side of the board through. I'll have to buy a finer grit paper than I have available. There is a woodworking show in the area this weekend. I'm sure I can pick up a finer grit roll there. I'll plane the other side as you suggest.

Thanks all, Dave

[george wilson]

tom,keep him off TV shows like "Forged in Fire",where the contestants are trying to make stuff!!:):):) I mean,they're bad enough already.

[Tom Vanzant]

Not a problem, George. If it's not sports, he doesn't watch it. I'll say this...he's gotten pretty good cooking on his Big Green Egg, but he's not allowed to handle the cutting boards after the meal.

[Mel Fulks]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned the dulling effect on knives from the grit left in wood from sanding . Much better just to plane or scrape. And compressed air does not remove the dirt from down in the pores.

[george wilson]

The WORST one is that round,rough surfaced ceramic PIZZA stone that my wife's mother sent her. Now,if you wanted a nice,rough,large,round ceramic stone,it would fit the bill!! I bought her a $4.00 pizza wheel to cut with.

[Don Orr]

OK, so she learned her lesson but did her husband? Banning him from using it just makes more work for her. His punishment should be to do all the cutting and chopping from now on and to hand wash the board after. (Mostly kidding.)
I would clean up the user side and leave the engraved side as is as a reminder of what NOT TO DO. I hope he has other redeeming qualities.;)

[David Masters]

Postscript: I ended up planing the board side with the laser engraving. I used a Stanley #4 and set the blade to take very thin shavings and just took my time. When I tested a small section with sandpaper, it just didn't look good. That $25 Stanley plane really works well.

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The light areas inside the engraving are glue and wax. I need to spend some time removing that and then should be done with this.

Dave