Projects: Fun end-grain cutting boards

[David Glauser]

OK, six weeks of interruptions later, and they are done. Each one took about 35 hours, I estimate, and so I couldn't charge enough for such a small board to make it commercially feasible. Good thing I'm retired. I really like the look of them, however.

20211114-185636.jpg

[Richard Parks]

Need to contact Rod Sterling from the "Twilight Zone" cause He would like them as much as I do. They really look great but God that is alot of time in for a couple of cutting boards.

[Ron Citerone]

Real interesting stuff right there! Thanks for sharing.

[Edward Weber]

Those are very nice, you know you've done them well when you can't stare at them too long.
Nowif you really want some fun (aka headache), go try and turn one on the lathe. DAMHIKT

[David Glauser]

I can do a lot in the shop, but I have no experience at all with a lathe. Might need to change that someday....

[David Glauser]

Today I put the first coat of oil on another couple of boards. That's always the fun part. The first is a basket weave out of cherry and purpleheart.

weave3.jpg

It was assembled from a bunch of little fiddly bits. Fiddly bits drive one mad after a while. There are 145 separate pieces of wood, but since I glued some up ahead, the final glue-up was 85 pieces. I need to glue up the small board soon.
weave1.jpg

Here is the board during sanding.
weave2.jpg

Lastly, I have a design of floating squares. This is quite easy to make.
FloatingSquares.jpg

[Leigh Betsch]

I really like the 3D square design. How hard is it to select the correct woods to get the proper shading? Is the shading dependent on how each wood absorbs the finish?

[Edward Weber]

It was assembled from a bunch of little fiddly bits. Fiddly bits drive one mad after a while. There are 145 separate pieces of wood, but since I glued some up ahead, the final glue-up was 85 pieces. I need to glue up the small board soon.

Glue big, cut small
Otherwise you'll go mad

[David Glauser]

Do you mean the board that looks like one deep well? That is two woods, a light and a dark. The 'waffle' pattern boards get their 3D look by the use of a light, medium and dark wood. Maple, cherry and walnut are long-time favorites - they all work easily and are readily obtainable. All darken somewhat when they absorb the oil. The maple gets used for pieces that represent surfaces catching the light, if it was actually 3D. The walnut is the deep shadows, and cherry for the middle tone.

Lately, the only walnut I've been able to get is fairly light. It still works, because lighter walnut has a bit more open grain than dense dark walnut, so it absorbs more oil and I still get a good dark look.

[Leigh Betsch]

Thanks. I’m going to give this a try once I get about a million other things done. It’s now on my “list”.