I left off last week with the planks cut up and ready to glue up.

The first step to gluing always is to dry fit. If the boards do not fit perfectly together before the glue is applied, adding glue won’t overcome that permanently. Sure, glue may work initially, but the bond will be weak, and the split will reform eventually.

Then for the glue. I used Titebond III because it’s written up pretty much everywhere as the glue for things that contact water a lot. Some say that Titebond II is enough, but why risk it?

Also I’ve had this glue for a long time, so why not use it? The hope is that it hasn’t gone bad.

With such a small board, the clamps on one side might be good enough, but just in case the push from the bottom would cause the pieces upward while drying, I put clamps on to better balance out the direction of the push.

The part I hate the most is waiting for it to dry. There’s debate as to how long you really have to let a glue-up stay in the clamps. I don’t usually have enough going on to need to free up the clamps so fast, so I like to leave whatever it is in the clamps at least overnight.

With the glue dry, I popped the board out of the clamps and got ready to plane.

The unevenness of the pieces makes sanding as the first smoothing step impossible. Planing accomplishes that goal quickly and repeatedly. So I sharpened the iron of the plane and got to work.

OK I got to work to get the strips of glue out with the tiny plane, but then I really go to work with the Stanley No. 5 plane.

Here are a bunch of progress photos in a row:

And then look what I got!

Oooooh, right?

With the table saw setup and a need for a larger jig to get a straight cut, I realized that I could get the excess off easily with my belt sander.

I held a bubble level to it as the belt sander removed more and more material to make sure that the end result wouldn’t be all cattywampus.

I raised the grain to make to make a smooth surface after the sanding.

I sanded the board from 80+ to 220+. And when I felt the surface, the back of my hand slid on the edge, and I ended up with a decent slice. I didn’t expect that to be the reason to call it a cutting board.

So I decided to put a chamfer on the edge so it would be easier (safer?) to handle.

And then it was time to prep for oil.

And then apply the oil.

Check out next week’s post for the first installment of a series about a second, more complicated cutting board.