Bob Deroeck
11-25-2022, 12:27 PM
Happy post-Thanksgiving. I enjoyed a nice family dinner at my sister Denise's house yesterday. While chatting she was lamenting the sad state of her 40+ year old olive wood cutting board which she brought back from Tunisia after a stint there with the Peace Corps. She wants to continue using the board, but it also has sentimental value. This board has had a hard life and is badly dished from years of use. There is also some warp, but not so bad. There are some significant cracks/splits, but nothing seems loose or wobbly. I've posted some photos, below. Currently the board is difficult to use because the dishing is so pronounced.
I suggested to Denise that maybe I could flatten the board to make it functional and try to stabilize the cracks/splits with epoxy. She reluctantly gave it to me with a look on her face showing fear she was seeing a best friend for the last time.
Here's my evaluation and initial thoughts on restoring this cutting board. The board varies in thickness from 15/16" to 1 1/16". The maximum depth of the dishing is about 3/8". My initial thoughts are to slightly flatten the backside of the board (the side with the black patches in the photos) with a hand plane. I've taken a few passes with a plane which you can see in the bottom left section of the 2nd photo. The wood is sound (not punky). Next, I'd plane the top with my 4-post Delta planer. To remove the dish will probably reduce the thickness of the board to somewhere between 1/2 to 5/8". I suspect this will be too thin to be stable over time. So, I'm thinking about using epoxy to laminate one or more layers of another solid wood to the back of the board. I'm thinking a final thickness of something like 1 1/4 to 1 1/2" would be good. I'd use epoxy thickened with silica for this lamination to allow it to fill the imperfections on the back of the cutting board. Then I'd fill the cracks/splits in the olive wood with epoxy without a filler.
I would appreciate critiques of my plan and also proposals for better plans for restoring the board.
For my plan what type of wood would you suggest? I looked at olive wood online and it's about $50/bf. So, I'm considering using what I have on hand, which is Honduras mahogany, walnut, and maple. I'm leaning towards mahogany since it's a good boat-building wood and the cutting board will be getting wet. I'm also concerned about potential differential expansion between the olive wood and the backing laminate wood, potentially causing splits in the olive wood. I could put the laminate wood so the grain is 90 degrees off from the grain of the olive wood. I'm guessing that would minimize the potential for splitting of either the laminate or the olive wood. I could also use multiple layers of laminate wood, essentially making my own plywood with, say, 1/4" thick layers. I'm not sure I'd gain much doing this compared to a single thickness of laminate at 90 degrees to the olive wood grain.
What do you guys think?
Thanks.
Bob
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I suggested to Denise that maybe I could flatten the board to make it functional and try to stabilize the cracks/splits with epoxy. She reluctantly gave it to me with a look on her face showing fear she was seeing a best friend for the last time.
Here's my evaluation and initial thoughts on restoring this cutting board. The board varies in thickness from 15/16" to 1 1/16". The maximum depth of the dishing is about 3/8". My initial thoughts are to slightly flatten the backside of the board (the side with the black patches in the photos) with a hand plane. I've taken a few passes with a plane which you can see in the bottom left section of the 2nd photo. The wood is sound (not punky). Next, I'd plane the top with my 4-post Delta planer. To remove the dish will probably reduce the thickness of the board to somewhere between 1/2 to 5/8". I suspect this will be too thin to be stable over time. So, I'm thinking about using epoxy to laminate one or more layers of another solid wood to the back of the board. I'm thinking a final thickness of something like 1 1/4 to 1 1/2" would be good. I'd use epoxy thickened with silica for this lamination to allow it to fill the imperfections on the back of the cutting board. Then I'd fill the cracks/splits in the olive wood with epoxy without a filler.
I would appreciate critiques of my plan and also proposals for better plans for restoring the board.
For my plan what type of wood would you suggest? I looked at olive wood online and it's about $50/bf. So, I'm considering using what I have on hand, which is Honduras mahogany, walnut, and maple. I'm leaning towards mahogany since it's a good boat-building wood and the cutting board will be getting wet. I'm also concerned about potential differential expansion between the olive wood and the backing laminate wood, potentially causing splits in the olive wood. I could put the laminate wood so the grain is 90 degrees off from the grain of the olive wood. I'm guessing that would minimize the potential for splitting of either the laminate or the olive wood. I could also use multiple layers of laminate wood, essentially making my own plywood with, say, 1/4" thick layers. I'm not sure I'd gain much doing this compared to a single thickness of laminate at 90 degrees to the olive wood grain.
What do you guys think?
Thanks.
Bob
490515490516490517490518490519