End Grain Cutting Board (Mid Project Advice Request)

[Travis Bochenek]

Hi all! After completing my first edge grain board it said "f" it , lets get crazy and try end grain. Like my last project I'm using maple and Black Walnut. I chose a design with a border around it and got to work.

Problem: I saw a small knot and figured I'd fill it after I dimensioned the board to it's final size. There actually ended up being a few that I didn't see until i planed down a bit. Of course, a piece broke off right on the edge from a light sanding. That small knot went all the way through.

So, if this happened to you, what would you do?

1) I have an extra row of black walnut, so perhaps chisel / somehow cut out a section and glue in a replacement
2) Epoxy the ever living $hit out of it
3) Make it a "live piece of edge" cutting board
4) Something insanely cool I haven't even thought about.

Your opinion is hugely appreciated and PS. yes I know my lines are off, give a guy a break. My aspirations often outweigh my capabilities.





Extra strip of Black Walnut at my disposal

[Jim Becker]

I'd fill it with dyed epoxy and sand it flush after it cures to replace the missing material.

[Roger Bull]

Your extra row does not match the cross section of the damaged row. Since you appear to have the pieces to fill the void I'm with Jim and would fill it with dark or black tinted epoxy.

[Roger Bull]

If you wanted to fix to offsets in your lines you might be able to cut the board lengthwise down the transitions between the maple and the walnut. You would only need 4 cuts. The kerf of your blade would take out most if not all of the visible offsets if you plan the cuts carefully. If your blade is sharp and gives you a good cut surface you would just glue the resulting 5 strips back together. Don't worry about the joint offsets between the same wood types as they won't be very noticeable at all especially after oiling the board.

Definitely do the epoxy repair first.

[Pat Barry]

I would glue in the missing piece with dark tinted epoxy and finish it from there.

[Prashun Patel]

Can you eliminate that row? You can either remove the row below it too so that the pattern lines up, or rotate every row below or above it 180 degrees. You won't have an even number of rows, but nobody (but you) will notice.

I am against using epoxy on a cutting board. It's just a pain to deal with , and may eventually crack and chip anyway.

[Travis Bochenek]

Thanks guys GREAT suggestions. What I've done so far is use a bit of titebond to tack the piece back in place. This worked surprisingly well, the goal is to just get it in place here.





Once that cured I got out the epoxy


Oops, wrong pic.


That's setting up now. I mixed in some transtint dark walnut. Unfortunately they only had the medium strength hardener in stock so it's not immediate. Ugh, I demand satisfaction!

I really loved your idea Roger. I'm considering doing those cuts and do think the kerf would eliminate the misaligned glue up. It comes down to how lazy I am at the time to be honest. On one hand this is for personal use, on the other hand I'm a pseudo perfectionist, so I'm not sure. Ugh, decisions!

[Travis Bochenek]

Found some more time to tinker. I decided the mismatched lines couldn't stay. So I aligned the blade kerf so it would offset the difference and wen to it. Thanks for the idea Roger. I did the glue up in a few phases, and below is the last one. I wet down the board so I could see the grain. When this is done I'll bring it to it's final dimension by cutting the ends. Still thinking about whether I should make them the same thickness as the side borders or keep them a bit longer (but obviously not this long).

End Grain is tough when you don't have a drum sander. I've gotten very good at sharpening my handplane, and it's a good workout I guess.

[Travis Bochenek]

Another quick update, squeezing in some work when I can. Everything came out of the glue up relatively flat. Man I wish I could just send her through the planer. Instead I sharpened my #5 and went to town. After that I recut the borders and decided I likes the look better if they were a bit thinner. After that I busted out the ol roundover bit and went pretty shallow with it.

Next I have a few small area where I want to add epoxy a bit of epoxy. My plan is to just keep it clear this time, and its only in 2 small spots on the side of the board. Then I can finally do the rest of the sanding an oil this pig. I'm happy I got such great advice from you guys and redid the lines. I would've regretted it.

[Jim Becker]

Pretty darn sharp looking cutting board!

[Travis Bochenek]

Pretty darn sharp looking cutting board!

Thanks Jim! It's my style to bite off more than I can chew. First end grain cutting board, why not do it with a border, MTM makes it look so easy! Suuure add a few glue ups, haha why not. Hey, I guess jumping right into the fire was a good way to learn. I give so much credit to you real woodworkers. There's so much more to it that anyone would ever guess. Btw I figured out a stupid mistake that absolutely plagued me with problems throughout this. My festool tracksaw was giving me so many issues with straight cuts. I blamed it ont he MFT3 table and must have reset it 5 times. The reality, is that the saw was on -1 for the angle. UGH. I didn't even realize there was a single negative setting. Yup, that was the culprit. I have way more hours in this than I care to say. No one would be able to afford the prices I would need to charge if I were ever to sell these. But I will love this damn thing for years to come.

I have an extra row of end grain black walnut, I was considering doing something interesting to make feet. Perhaps pur non skid rubber on the base of those. Any cons to using wood? I imagine the best is to pre-drill a bit and use stainless screws.

[Jim Becker]

So if you can't chew the bite, you spit it out and make smaller pieces...and move on to complete the job. There's nothing wrong in any way, shape or form with challenging yourself in any project. That's how we learn.