Woodworking is a project that takes a lot of time and patience. Just like if we were to build a house; we have to take the time to design, plan, create plans on paper, buy materials, build, finish and so on. When we receive an order for D & K Custom Woodworking, we take about a day to get the design sometimes longer for more complicated pieces. This is where we get your idea on paper. Down to the last final measurement. From there we are able to build a set of plans, which allows us to create a supply list, then we can provide an estimate cost for the finished piece. From there we do the shopping for the materials and start creating.
Supplies Needed:
Choice of Hardwood
Wood Glue (We recommend Titebond II)
Table Saw
Tape Measure
Bar Clamps
Clamps
Cauls
Planer
Sander with 80 and 120 grit sandpaper
Chisel and/or Scraper
Hearing and Eye Protection
This week's project is an end grain cutting board.We ordered a kit of Purple Heart and Hard Maple from Bell Forest Products. There are other kinds of hardwoods that can be used. However it is important to make sure that they have a tight grain, and have less natural oils.
Hardwoods are used to make cutting boards because they don't allow as much bacterial growth as a soft wood (like Pine) would. The difference between hard and soft woods are the grain patterns. A hard wood's grain pattern is very tight and close together creating dense, heavy wood. This comes from a slow growing tree, which usually has leaves, like Maple. A soft wood's grain pattern is loose and spread out, which creates a lighter, less dense wood. Soft wood comes from a faster growing tree, that usually has needles; like Pine. The hardwood's tight end grain pattern helps diminish bacterial growth in the wood, which is great for a cutting board. Now you may ask why we are using the end grain side for the surface to cut on, instead of the face grain or edge grain. Imagine your piece of wood to have the structure of the bristles of a paint brush. The bristles of the brush represent the grains of the wood. If you lay the brush horizontal, think about how that would look if you were take a knife to that. There is a chance to tear up the wood, the knife, and it leaves major cut marks. If you look at the top of the brush and the ends of the bristles, this would compare to the end grain. If you take your knife to that, it instead separates the grains. This allows less wear and tear to the knife, and on the board itself.
Now that we have the wood it was time to design the cutting board. We could have done white and purple stripes, but we opt out of the simple idea and wanted to go towards more of a checkerboard pattern. We used the Cutting Board Designer software that is available from 1024Studios.com The software allows you to create a design. Then does all of the math for you and provides a cut list and instructions for your design!
Before we can start cutting the necessary pieces for our cutting board we need to clean up the factory cut edges. This will ensure we have square edges to worth with. Once we have those done we can start cutting our pieces for the first panel.
The Cutting Board Designer's instructions said that we needed 8 strips. 4 of Maple and 4 Purple heart. They all need to be 26 1/2 inches long and 1 1/4 inches thick. 2 strips need to be 2 1/4 inches wide, 2 need to be 1 3/4 inches wide, 2 need to be 1 1/4 inches wide and 2 need to be 3/4 of an inch wide.
Once all of those are cut, it is time to glue the pieces together. We start by laying out our panel the way that the instructions state on top of the bar clamps. It is important to glue the pieces together the exact way the instructions say to ensure that your design can be created.
The gluing process is the most important step of making the cutting board. Glue is the ONLY thing that is holding the joints together. So be generous. It is also important to use a WATERPROOF and WEATHER RESISTANT wood glue. We always use Titebond II.
When we have glue on all of the surfaces that needs it, we made sure the edges were straight and started tightening the bar clamps to bring the boards tightly together. For this project we needed to use our homemade cauls again. Cauls keep the pieces that are being glued together flat. All we need to make the cauls are some scrap wood and packing tape. Clamp the cauls together to make the cutting board flat. Check for any gaps between the boards. If so add more clamps as necessary.
Glue squeeze out is a good thing to have. This is how we know that all of the surfaces have glue. After about a half hour we went back and scraped off the drying glue. This saves a lot of time when it comes time to sand the glue off.
Now let the glue set up and dry.
Once the glue is dry, remove the clamps. Scrape any left over chunks of dried glue. We alternated between using a chisel and a paint scraper. After the major amount of glue is removed by scraping use a sander with 80 grit sand paper to remove the rest.
The next step is to run the panel through the planer. This will remove any excess glue, and any places that are not level. Our goal thickness was 1 5/8 inch. After that thickness was achieved, we sanded the panel again.
After sanding it is time to cut the board into the strips that will create our checkerboard pattern. Start by squaring an edge perpendicular to the stripes. Use that edge to run on the fence of the table saw. For our pattern needed to make our strips 1 1/4 inches thick. This thickness will turn out to be how tall the cutting board is. Every strip that is cut off set aside and lay the strip back out in the same direction. Do this for all of your strips.
Once all pieces are cut, flip over every strip so the end grain is on top. This is where you follow this instruction from your Cutting Board Designer. For our cutting board we needed to flip every other strip. As you can see, this is when our pattern started to take shape.
Take your strips and place them back in the bar clamps. Glue and clamp your strips together. REMINDER-When gluing at this point remember that the end grain is up. You are gluing the face grain sides. Take time to make sure all of the ends strips line up, otherwise your pattern will be not be straight.
Since all of the strips were the same thickness, we didn't need to use cauls to flatten the cutting board. Instead, to ensure that we had straight edges we clamped them to the sides. Tighten the clamps til you have a good glue squeeze out and let the glue set up for about half an hour and go back and scrape of the excess glue. Then let the glue finish drying.
This completes the construction of the cutting board! It's exciting to see how it took shape! Next is to add some hand holds and apply a finish to it; which I will explain in Part 2!
Enjoy!
Kirstie
Want your own custom end grain cutting board? This cutting board can be made to order from D & K Custom Woodworking LLC.
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