Embedded Files
Who ever would have thought that it takes so much time, equipment and knowledge to make a cutting board - or even a pen! I wouldn't have, not until I started learning, but I have an odd mind - the more complicated and time consuming that I learned it would take, the more interested and passionate I became about doing this. Honestly, though, the biggest time consuming part is something I never thought about, and it wasn't covered at all in any of the "how to make a cutting board" videos that I watched. It's always assumed that you just have the wood on hand in those videos...but you know what? Buying pre-planed and square wood that isn't bowed or curved is SUPER expensive, and you sure can't get that at Home Depot. That last part I didn't know at first - so I DID buy some oak and maple from Home Depot. It came in these nice, straight long strips that were a good thickness for cutting boards (1.5") so I thought it would be easy. I quickly learned that none of this is ever easy.
So I took the boards from Home Depot and put them together - oak, then maple and so on. I only use the best food grade wood glue and those clamps on the bottom are SUPER expensive, but worth it. I bought 2 new and 2 used. The wood has to stay clamped together a minimum of 4 hours but I usually let them go overnight at least.
Once they've dried, I have to scrape and sand off all of the excess glue. Note that I made this 36" x 12", in hopes that I'd be able to cut it in half into two 18" x 12" boards.
Since I wanted to do an edge-grain board, the next step wsa to cut even slices 1.5" thick across the entire board.
This shows half the board turned on its side showing the end grain on top. You can see the difference between the end grain and the edge grain.
After flipping all the end grain up, you turn every other piece 180 degrees, so you have this checkerboard-like pattern. Then you're ready to glue everything again and clamp them back up.
And then, the disaster. Once it was all glued, dried, sanded a little and ready to be planed, I put into the thickness planer. This wood from Home Depot is SUPER grainy....so it caught on one of the blades, which sunk deep into it, then literally threw the 36" x 12" huge hunk of wood at me - but not after breaking it into 3 parts. That middle piece in particular - it flew straight at my head with a lot of force.
These are my glasses.....the first time I ever forgot to switch to safety glasses, this happened. When that piece flew at my head I ducked and twisted to the side, and the wood flew right by, clipping the glasses and cutting a gouge in the top of the right lens. I got very lucky, and learned a valuable lesson about safety AND buying wood at Home Depot for my projects.
So, after taking the largest piece, cutting it even on the table saw, sanding it down for about 2 hours straight because it was so rough, putting the juice grooves in with the router and branding it with my contact info - I was actually able to do what I had intended to do from the start. I gave my first board to a very good friend whose father indirectly inspired me to get off my butt and actually get into woodworking like I had wanted to do for decades.
So many lessons learned, so much time put into this project, but I came out of it with a nice first piece and a lot of new information. First things first - I needed to find a good hardwood supplier and learn a lot more about the wood itself. Oh, and fix my thickness planer (which I did).
I looked online for hardwood. For the most part, you need to be a contractor or someone who buys a LOT of wood to get decent prices. Most people (myself included prior to this!) would be AMAZED at how expensive wood is. That first board that I made, above - ended up costing me around $70 for the wood alone, and most of it was wasted. A single, planed piece of cherry that's 1" thick, 6" wide and 6' long might cost you $25. If every single piece I cut out of it is perfect, I might get enough wood for a single board out of it. But I don't make boards that are all cherry, and the boards are NEVER that perfect. So really, I'm spending closer to $50 per board in a case like this. That's crazy. I went to a wood supplier that's about an hour from my house and did not have a great experience. I did buy some exotic woods - Wenge, Yellowheart and Saprele - but no standard wood because their prices were way too high, their service was not good and their quality overall just wasn't there. I was getting really frustrated, even went to a business downtown that was remodeling and letting anyone take their old wood but didn't find anything useful...until I found a guy on facebook that's about 10 minutes from my house and only sells non-harvested local wood. I'll still have to get my exotic woods from the other place (or online) but this guy is giving me reasonable prices for very rough wood. The pic to the right is what I got off of him my first trip - from left to right, Cherry, Walnut, 3 more rows of Cherry and 1 very interesting piece of Osage Orange. Remember monkey ball trees? That.
I didn't really know what I was getting into when I went to my new wood supplier. He has a lot of pieces that I just won't buy because they're perfect for making natural tables out of the whole piece - and I'm going to be cutting this stuff into little pieces and doing something very different with it. I talked to him about what I was doing, what I was looking for - and he was very understanding. He was (unlike the other place) willing to cut pieces down for me and NOT try to sell me the broken, rotted, nasty pieces like the other place wanted to. Again, though - this wood is pretty rough, often still even having the bark on it. I had to learn fast how to process wood for my needs. Below is some insight on the process for just 1 board - the one that's in front in the picture above, on the right side. It's Cherry....and it's ugly above but it came out gorgeous.
First, I had to trim off the rough ends just to clean it up. I did this on the table saw using my crosscut sled. Then, I had to remove that right side, it had some deep gouges in it that I knew I couldn't use. Besides, I make my boards 18" wide to start and that left me with 19" - I'd be cutting that off anyway.
Next, I had to run the piece over my jointer (something I realized I'd need in conjunction with the thickness planer, so I ordered it from Amazon - and boy am I glad that I did). Then through the thickness planer. I took this pic to show the difference, just from doing it part way.
This is the final product before I can cut the pieces down into proper width for my boards. Note that the very dark spots on top were planed away - which means I lose some of this to sawdust. All 4 sides are perfectly square, flat, and it's the exact same thickness across the board. - this is all absolutely required or else the wood just won't fit together.
Remember that second board above, the Walnut? I cut that down, jointed and planed it into these boards here. It yielded a lot of quality wood that I used in several cutting boards, but there were still quite a few pieces that I couldn't use due to size, bad coloration, cracks, etc. I kept every little piece though, knowing I would have to figure out what I could do with those. My son and I marveled over these boards, and you might recognize them as a background I use on this site.
"How long does it take you to make a cutting board?" I get asked this a lot. There's no easy way to answer, because each board is different, the wood is different, I have to pick out the perfect pieces, I have to create the boards from rough wood, I have to glue, sand, and use most of the power tools I have in my shop on each one. Let's say I'm making a Cherry and Walnut board, no exotic woods. It all starts with creating the boards, as I show above. It took me about 2.5 hours to break down that one piece of rough Walnut into the boards I showed in that lats picture. So let's say it took an hour to make the walnut for a single board. Then I have to do the same thing with Cherry. Now we're up to about 2 hours, and all I've done is get the planks prepared to cut down to size.
I already have pictures above of how I cut everything to size then have to glue and clamp them together overnight. After that, I sand it and run it through the thickness planer so it's flat and even. I spend a minimum of 1 hour per board, sometimes up to 2 hours, just sanding them so they're nice and smooth on all sides. This is a long and grueling task. So let's say we're now up to 4 hours of work on this board.
Next is something that I've had a lot of trouble with on several boards - putting it on the routing table to round out the edges, put in the juice groves and create the handles on the sides. The router cuts through different wood at different speeds, so it can jump here and there - if that happens, I may have to cut off a piece of the board and start that side over. I dread this part and take my time with it. I spend at least a full hour doing the routing part, using 3 separate (very expensive) bits. Now we're up to 5.5 hours.
Next, I spend at least another 30 minutes sanding the board again, in particular making sure the juice grooves are very smooth. Once I'm satisfied that everything about the board is ready, I'll brand it and start my favorite part - oiling it. I use high quality food grade mineral oil - no stains, no colors. The transformation of the wood in front of my eyes gives me a wow factor every single time. Here you can see half the board has the first application of mineral oil (I do 3) compared to the sanded, clean board. Pay close attention to the grain, how it stands out when it's oiled.
After 3 applications of the oil, waiting several hours if not overnight between each one, the board is ready for the final touch - a mix of mineral oil and beeswax. This helps to protect the board before its first use and hold those oils inside. Each board will eventually need to be oiled again just to keep its luster and to help its natural ability to heal itself against the knife cuts. Maybe another 30 minutes of work branding, oiling and waxing it, not counting the 2 days or so wait time for it to soak everything up between applications.
This is my personal board, the 3rd one I've made. My son and I use it all the time, and plan to for years to come. Using the total time above, I can estimate that I spent somewhere around 6.5 hours on this board, turning it from rough wood to a function heirloom. Some may take a little less, some may take more (especially if it jumps on the routing table) - but if I had to answer that common question of "How long does it take you to make a cutting board?" - 6.5 hours, not counting any of the travel time to get and pick out the wood or set up time for all of my equipment. Each board, pen, pencil or other item I make is a journey for me, nothing is ever easy but each piece is always worth it.
If you have any questions about anything on this site, please email me at don@pghrare.com
Report abuse