Juice groove for cutting board

[Bri Peterson]

I'm making an edge grain cutting board out of walnut, roughly 18"x12", about 1" thick. The hand tool bug has bitten me - I'm ripping plain sawn boards with a bow saw, planing strips straight, and then flipping the pieces on edge to be glued together. Kind of fun once you get over that it's a bit crazy.

I'd like to make a juice/blood groove in the top of the board without using an electric router (core box router bit + bushing guide + template, many posts on this). Is this possible with the right gouge or specialized plane? Never tried anything like this before. Just curious if anybody else has tried this, or if anybody has any ideas.

Thanks,

Brian

[Roy Lindberry]

I'm making an edge grain cutting board out of walnut, roughly 18"x12", about 1" thick. The hand tool bug has bitten me - I'm ripping plain sawn boards with a bow saw, planing strips straight, and then flipping the pieces on edge to be glued together. Kind of fun once you get over that it's a bit crazy.

I'd like to make a juice/blood groove in the top of the board without using an electric router (core box router bit + bushing guide + template, many posts on this). Is this possible with the right gouge or specialized plane? Never tried anything like this before. Just curious if anybody else has tried this, or if anybody has any ideas.

Thanks,

Brian

A gouge would work, but I would make sure it is a flexible paring gouge.

Alternatively, you could make a scratch stock fairly quickly and scratch the majority of the profile. The corners would probably be tough, though, and need to be done with a gouge anyway. But this would keep the groove parallel to the edges along the length and width.

A round molding plane would do the same, but perhaps give a cleaner cut across the grain. You would have to rig up some sort of fence, or just use your fingers. and you run into the same problem on the corners as the scratch stock.

[Roy Lindberry]

I'm making an edge grain cutting board out of walnut, roughly 18"x12", about 1" thick. The hand tool bug has bitten me - I'm ripping plain sawn boards with a bow saw, planing strips straight, and then flipping the pieces on edge to be glued together. Kind of fun once you get over that it's a bit crazy.

I'd like to make a juice/blood groove in the top of the board without using an electric router (core box router bit + bushing guide + template, many posts on this). Is this possible with the right gouge or specialized plane? Never tried anything like this before. Just curious if anybody else has tried this, or if anybody has any ideas.

Thanks,

Brian

I forgot to tell you, I haven't worked with gouges all that much, but it seems to me that if you are going to use a gouge, an out-cannel gouge would work best for this application. I'd be interested to hear from others on this who have more experience.

[Bill McDermott]

Well... an electric router would work very well for this task. If I were to do it by hand, I would put a heavy center line in place with a marking gauge. Then I would add Inside and Outside lines. Then I would just go to work with a very sharp chisel and aim for a V-groove. I'd use the deep center line to get started, then widen and deepen it as I went. The corners will always be the crux move. I expect I would convince myself that the imperfections resulting from all the chopping and pairing were an artistic feature of a handcrafted piece.

[Jim Koepke]

This should be no problem for a gouge sized for the groove.

For a stopped groove, a gouge is likely the easiest solution. If the groove is running off the ends, then a plane could be the easiest way to go. If you do not have a plane with the proper profile, a plow plane could start the groove and a gouge could finish it.

jtk

[Bri Peterson]

Thank you for all your advice so far.

Looks like I will try an out-cannel gouge with same width as the groove I'm making (I was thinking of either 3/4" or 1" wide). Would something like this maybe work? It is not a flexible paring gouge, bit it might be good enough. I couldn't find paring gouges that were out-cannel.

I will mark both outside lines, and a heavy line in the middle to get started. This makes lots of sense.

It will be at least a couple weeks before I mess up my pretty cutting board with a gauge. I will let you know how it goes.

[Jim Koepke]

Bri,

Welcome to the Creek. Your location isn't shown in your profile. You may live close to another member who is willing to let you test drive some of the options.

Testing methods on scrap is one way to have a finished project not look like a mistake.

jtk