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Woodworking: End Grain Cutting Board from Scratch Project (Part 2)

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I left off last week ready to glue up my cut pieces of ash and walnut. It bears mentioning that I didn’t start out this project expecting to do an end grain cutting board. Rather, it was my cousin Neil who asked me if I’d make an end grain cutting board, and I said no because the additional steps were annoying. I’ll go into those later.

I used my DeWalt clamps as usual, but I added a set of Bora 50″ clamps. One of the pair that arrived was working freely and nicely. The other one needed more convincing. I set that aside in favor of just using three clamps (the two DeWalt and working Bora).

After the glue-up, it was on to what has fast become my favorite part of the process: hand planing.

I use a Stanley No. 5 plane to have the longest flat surface while still being reasonable to hold. That way I don’t ride dips but get rid of them.

The thing slowing down this process was using the skinny pieces. Since they weren’t as thick as the other pieces, the entire board had to be brought down to their level.

As fun as planing is, there are real benefits to cutting everything perfectly right the first time. I know I’ll get there. But I haven’t yet, so there’s more cleanup.

Once the planing was done, I took out my basic crosscut sled to cut up the board into pieces again.

And I had that decision to make about whether to go edge grain or end grain.

I lined up how edge grain would look:

and compared it to end grain.

Wow, did I ever go back and forth.

More next week!

Woodworking: End Grain Cutting Board from Scratch Project (Part 1)

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I had two cutting boards under my belt to this point. The first, a simple edge grain that was maple and walnut. The second, a more complicated edge grain that was entirely cherry and had an offset. I had done some planning for each, but the planning factored in the cutting depth of the Proxxon table saw that only makes through cuts. I had gotten my DeWalt table saw in the middle of the cherry cutting board project, and this would be the first one without limits for cutting depth.

I had some desires for this cutting board project:
1. I wanted very little waste. The amount I had to cut off the edges for the offset bothered me. I would have to build that in to preserve as much wood as I could.
2. I wanted the contrast of the light and dark woods. The cherry was fine, and I’d do it again with cherry, but I like the contrast more.
3. I wanted to play around with thicknesses. The prior projects had uniform thicknesses of pieces of wood that I glued together, but the increased cutting depth would allow me to play around with a mix of thicknesses.

I was still at the mercy of whatever the guys at House of Hardwood decided to put in the scrap area.

When I went shopping for this project, I found a lot of poplar. But poplar is bad for cutting boards. I also found ash. Ash can be good for cutting boards.

I found no walnut.

But I had a little bit of walnut left over from my first cutting board project!

I had enough of an idea to start up.

I set up my table saw with my makeshift outfeed table of a board attached to a folding table and set up my fence to rip the walnut. I have since become aware that the fence flips down for closer cuts with the blade guard.

I liked the uniformity of these cuts and the variety of colors. I was off to a good start. I’d have more play with the ash.

Again, the fence flips down for closer cuts. I know that now.

With more uniform pieces, I’d cut some thinner ones.

I had it almost all lined up perfectly. It was those thin piece that threw off the height. But I was sure it’d be worth it.

The glue-up starts next week!