Largest cherry cutting board in the state!! (pics)

[Dave Shively]

Well maybe not a cutting board but actually it is probably the largest kitchen
cherry island counter top in the state. The homeowner wanted cherry and wanted the end grain turned upward. The size is a whopping 4 feet by 12 feet and is 1 ½ inch thick! It weighs 27

5 pounds. I have not seen the kitchen but it must be huge to have an island to support a top this size. The thing that I could not believe was she wanted a mineral oil finish. But it gets worse. She says she does plan on cutting AND chopping on it!. I strongly tried to discourage the use of mineral oil due to water or other liquids that might get spilled on it. I told her that the glue was water resistant (Tite Bond III) but not water proof, but she wouldn’t listen. The top coat is a oil/paraffin wax and I told her she would have
to re-oil it very often. I started by cutting the 1 3/4" boards into 1 3/4" strips.
I then glued these in 4 manageable sections about 12" wide. Then I ran them
through the planer to just over 1 ½" then a finial sanding down to 1 ½ at the
WBS. After gluing the sections were not quite straight so I used a 12' piece
of aluminum as a straight edge and spiral carbide router bit to get my straight
edge. I used poly glue this time to glue the sections together. Now all that needs
to be done is get it delivered.

The first picture makes it look like it is not flat but it really is.
Also I used oak splines to help line up the sections.

Dave

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/4914/2434924310101547053S600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/6339/2933249760101547053S600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/4466/2406133870101547053S600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb28.webshots.com/5787/2827297810101547053S600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb22.webshots.com/6613/2084369060101547053S600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/2982/2956522210101547053S600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb64.webshots.com/6591/2113738010101547053S600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb42.webshots.com/4649/2459450290101547053S600x600Q85.jpg

[Per Swenson]

Nice Job Dave, very nice.




Per

[Steve Schoene]

cause I thought you said she wanted the end grain up, which isn't what's in the pictures.

Nice glue up.

[Dave Shively]

Try this picture. I think it shows the end grain better.

http://inlinethumb57.webshots.com/5688/2866655940101547053S600x600Q85.jpg

[Phil Thien]

Nice work, but...

If she wanted end-grain up, shouldn't picture #5 in the first post (the one w/ the biscuits or tenons) have the grain running _perpendicular_ to the joinery?

[James Phillips]

I agree with the other folks. That is a long grain top not an end grain. None the less it looks beautiful.

[Rob Wright]

Great - sure is a big piece of lumber!

I have to say that I am confused as well with it being "end grain." It looks great but I always thought that an end grained butcher block cutting board had the end grain up in little blocks. I had a thread on a dovetailed one - not nearly as large as yours. I also finished it with mineral oil and paraffin/oil.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=551505#poststop

_ Rob

[Dave Shively]

My mistake on what I said here. I didn't mean end grain, I meant to say the boards were turned on edge.

Dave

[Mike Heidrick]

My mistake on what I said here. I didn't mean end grain, I meant to say the boards were turned on edge.

Dave


How would this be OK to chop on? Wouldn't it cut the fibers in half?

I think you need to send this lady a true cherry chopping block with true end grain and tell her to keep the knife blade off this beautiful table!! She is going to ruin it and then come back to you because it does not resist the chopping abuse.

["Jason Belous"]

nice work, nice shop as well.

[Matt Meiser]

Very nice top. I'd guess someone who has a kitchen that size either a) knows there way around a kitchen and knows exactly what they want or b) isn't going to be using it much at all other than as a showplace for party guests. If you can, please post some pictures of it in place.

[Mike Cutler]

Very nice Dave. As someone that has done a few large panel glueups, that must have been quite the assembly process, start to fininsh. Nice work.

As to the question of grain orientation, it matters not. I understood what you meant. I highly doubt that surface will be used to cut food on.;)

[Tom Cowie]

Very nice Dave,

The oil finish will require some maintenance but it will look brand new every time that she re-oils it.

Tom

[mike roe]

you can chop on this no problem - technically end grain is the best for cutting but edge grain is second best.

looks awesome! is that one continous strip the entire length?????!!!!!

[Joe Unni]

Just gorgeous!!

I hope the kitchen is a straight shot from the door ;)

-joe

[Russ Filtz]

Hopefully the owner said "edge" and not "end" grain! :eek: That would be a lot of re-ripping and crosscutting to do!

[Brian Penning]

Maybe I'm the exception here but I'd be cutting and chopping on that top without hesitation. That's what it's for. The more it gets use the better it'll look imo.
Also, mineral oil is the correct thing to apply now and then.

[Scot wolf]

Maybe I'm the exception here but I'd be cutting and chopping on that top without hesitation. That's what it's for. The more it gets use the better it'll look imo.
Also, mineral oil is the correct thing to apply now and then.

With end grain..... yes... with face grain.... no

[Phil Thien]

It is still fine to chop on long grain. It has gotta be, that seems to be the way the vast majority of chopping boards are made. Those end-grain butcher blocks tend to be much thicker and at the length and width of this island would require a forklift to move around.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Wow! That's a gorgeous table. It looks real flat in the pictures...something that is hard for me to do.

By the way... Somethings come up and I won't be available to help you lift it into place. :rolleyes:

-Jeff :)

[Brian Penning]

OK, I'll bite. Why one and not the other? :)



With end grain..... yes... with face grain.... no

[mike roe]

end grain allows the knife edge to go in between the fibers - keeps the blade sharper and the wood is not harmed that much. On Face grain the knife has to cut the actual wood fiber dulling the blade and causeing chip out. Edge grain is in the middle - the grain is thinner the face grain lessening the liklihood of the knife cutting the fibers. Traditionally butcher blocks were made with end grain, but edge grain is popular for this sort of thing.

I only know all of this after much research when i started to make a block like this for my kitchen.

[Brian Penning]

Duh!!...I'm laughing because I was originally :rolleyes:trying to figure out why Mike said Mineral Oil was OK with endgrain but not face grain.:)

[mike roe]

aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hehehehehe DOH! yeah i dont understand that...

[Brent Dowell]

Great Googly Moogly is that nice looking!

What a nice counter. But I agree, with something like that there is no way I would chop directly on it. If you do it enough across the grain, you could really ruin certain sections.

Too bad you can't sell the buyer on a nice edge grain cutting board for that...

[Brent Dowell]

Oh, and I make a 'goo' of mineral oil and parafin wax to put on my cutting boards, both end and edge grain.

Really makes both of them look and work quite nicely, repelling water and stains, as best as can be expected. Makes cleaning them up pretty easy too.

[Dave Shively]

One thing I forgot to mention is there will be a stove top cut out about 24" x 28". Maybe I can talk her into making the cut out piece into a real cutting board
she can hack away on.

Dave

[Phil Thien]

One thing I forgot to mention is there will be a stove top cut out about 24" x 28". Maybe I can talk her into making the cut out piece into a real cutting board
she can hack away on.

Dave

Bingo!

Not that I think it would be a problem cutting. Like I said, there are more edge grain than end grain cutting boards around. But it would be such a shame to start cutting on that.

[Ben Abate]

Well enough about the end grain and edge grain.

I want to see some pictures of your shop. That looks like a very nice setup you have. It also looks like you have a lot of room. If after you deliver that monster you could give us a shop tour. Nothing like a good looking shop.

Thanks
Ben

[Russ Filtz]

That's because you can toss or re-sand cutting boards easily. Not so easy on a built-in top! You'd have to re-sand the entire surface evenly or you'd end up with divots.

[Joe Chritz]

I gotta go with the consensus on this one.

It looks really good and you can cut on edge grain. It isn't as good as end grain but exponentially better than face grain. My board only has 4 years of solid service and it looks scratched, not chopped up.

Any board will get banged up by chopping on them. A restaurant at the Holiday Inn at Grayling, MI has a really butcher block on display at the door. It has to be 8 inches thick and about 36"x36". There is a dish in the middle from use that has to be nearly an inch. Wonder how many hands and knives it took to wear that section away?

Joe

[Neil Bosdet]

end grain allows the knife edge to go in between the fibers - keeps the blade sharper and the wood is not harmed that much. On Face grain the knife has to cut the actual wood fiber dulling the blade and causeing chip out. Edge grain is in the middle - the grain is thinner the face grain lessening the liklihood of the knife cutting the fibers. Traditionally butcher blocks were made with end grain, but edge grain is popular for this sort of thing.

I only know all of this after much research when i started to make a block like this for my kitchen.

Maybe I'm missing something this isn't making sense to me. If you have a flatsawn board, wouldn't "edge" grain become "face" grain if you rotated the log 90 degrees when it was originally milled. In other words they are identical.

If I'm missing something please tell me as this just doesn't make any sense to me.

[Brent Dowell]

Think of a board as a big bundle of fibers, Sort of like a broom.

Edge grain would be if you held the broom horizontal and sliced across the fibers. You would sever the fibers.

End grain would be if you stood the broom vertically and ran the knife through the broom parallel to the fibers. As soon as you pull the knife it, the broom would 'heal' itself, because nothing was severed.

When making and end grain cutting board, or butcher block, you cross cut a board across the fibers, then turn the blocks 90 degrees so all the fibers are now running vertically, and glue it up.

Voila, A self healing (to a certain degree) cutting board!

[Ellen Benkin]

Did you biscuit the boards together when you made each of the four sections?

[Dave Shively]

No biscuits but I did use 1/4" thick oak splines every 12" to glue the sections together.

[Pat Germain]

Dittos the beautiful countertop comments.

I wouldn't have any problem cutting on that. It's so large, by the time it's completely covered in knife marks, we'll all be dead. Then the next owner can give it a good sanding and oiling and start all over again.

[Bruce Benjamin]

Beautiful table. For most purposes, Tite bond III is water proof. It's not for below water line use but it will easily stand up to any amount of water that table will ever see.

Bruce

[Tyler Howell]

Beautiful,
Love to see more of your shop please.