In this stage of the tutorial we’ll actually see the end-grain board make its first appearance. When we finished Stage IV I had 19 short strips, which was far more than I needed. I could have ended up with less waste in either of two ways. I could have made the initial sticks shorter than 35 inches, or I could have made the board thicker than 1.5 inches. The latter choice would have been best, but my brain was too tired to do the detailed math — OK– I was in a hurry.
In any event, I actually used only 14 of the short strips to make my board. The next step is to glue the short strips together to form the cutting board.
Turn each strip 90-degrees so that the end grain is up. Look at the pattern formed by the grain and the blocks themselves and once again arrange them so that the pattern is pleasing to you. When you have done this, begin turning all the strips (except the last one) 90-degrees again so that a side is now on top. It’s important that you turn them all in the same direction, all to the right, or all to the left.
Turning the strips in preparation for gluing.
The last strip is left upright because this time around we will glue only one side of each block. Apply the glue liberally. When you’re finished, it should look something like this. I used a foam brush to spread the glue.
You should consider doing this glue-up in two sessions to prevent the strips sliding around too much. If you have enough clamps, you can do what I did and use cauls to keep the strips aligned.
To use clamping cauls, be sure that you cover the ends of the strips with wax paper or shiny tape so you don’t glue the cauls to the cutting board.
Here is what my final glue-up looked like:
Note the nice even beads of glue. This is what you want to see. It lets you know there is plenty of glue in the joints so none of them will be glue-starved and weak.
I had several left-over strips and decided to glue those up as well. I’ll make interesting coasters from them when I have some time.
Once the glue has cured, remove the clamps. Because this board is small enough to fit through my thickness planer, I planed it flat. You can also use a belt sander, a router with a special jig, or a hand plane to flatten the end grain. If there is more excess glue than you feel comfortable machining, use a sharp chisel or paint scraper to remove the cured glue.
At the beginning of Stage IV I mentioned that I’d have a little more to say about gluing in the cold. Below is a picture of the way this board looked after more than a day of drying. My shop was quite cold–around the 40-degree point–and the result was extremely long curing time for the glue. I have serious concerns about the strength of these joints, though I have to say that the board machined without incident and has held together for a while indoors.
You can see that the glue isn’t really dry.
Take note of the way I eventually arranged the sticks to give me a pleasing pattern. The two strips on either end look darker than the others because the nap of the grain (like the nap of a carpet) runs in the opposite direction from the strips in the center. This is because I flipped these strips end-for-end. You can also see that even with the clamping cauls in place, the strips shifted a little during gluing and are not perfectly aligned. We’ll take care of that in a minute, but for now let’s talk about how to plane end grain.
End grain can be run through a thickness planer just like edge grain, but there are couple of important points you’ll want to keep in mind. First, there will be significant chip out on the trailing end. Second, you need to take very small bites because end grain is hard on planer knives.
If your strips are uneven, be sure to set the planer higher than usual so that at no point are you taking off too much material on a single pass. I find that a sixteenth (1/16) is about the most I am comfortable asking the planer to take in one pass. I like taking only a thirty-second (1/32) much better.
Here is what to expect in terms of chip out. Remember that this board is made from cherry. If you use a more open-grained wood such as oak, expect even more.
Don’t be overly concerned about this. We’ll mill it off in the next step.
The first thing to do is square one side. You can use a jointer, router, or table saw to do this. I prefer the table saw for ease and efficiency, though it is technically less accurate the way I do it–but then, this isn’t furniture so it really doesn’t have to be perfect.
I set up the first cut as a crosscut on the table saw, but I treat the second one as a rip.
The first cut is made using the miter gauge. I place the edge of the board that is closest to straight against a sacrificial fence attached to the miter gauge and position it so that the blade will remove the least material possible consistent with a clean straight edge.
The second and subsequent cuts are made against the rip fence as seen in the image below:
In the end, the cutting board looks like this:
I’ve said a couple of times that cutting boards aren’t furniture and therefor don’t require the same accuracy. Since we’ll be rounding the edges (or giving them some other treatment) small errors in squareness or differences in the thickness of border strips as compared to internal strips won’t be obvious.
I find it freeing to relax about my work in the shop. When I started out, I was reading the better woodworking magazines and looking at the amazing work turned out by the best craftsmen in the country. I began to realize that I was simply not as good as they are, and it almost made me want to give up on woodworking all together. (For what it’s worth, the same thing happened to me with photography just last year!) Now I take a more relaxed approach. If I am uptight about wasting wood or making a joint that doesn’t fit properly, I have a lot less fun and make a lot more mistakes. If I really screw up badly, I might waste an entire board that cost me maybe $25.00. Oh well! If I make a poor-fitting joint, I might have to make another copy of the part. Oh well! I even find it enjoyable to figure out how to recover from errors, even occasionally incorporating them into the project by altering the design slightly.
Now it’s time to decide on the edge treatment you want to give your board. Options include:
- None – just sand the corners so nobody gets hurt
- Bead – a fancy treatment seen on wainscoting that actually looks good on the edges of a cutting board
- Chamfer – applying a 45-degree angle to the edges for a modern look
- Round-over – this is the most common and popular
I chose round-over for this board. Edge treatment can be executed in a number of ways, but use of a router is the most efficient. I routed the edges of the first board I made using an edge guide and hand-holding the router. If you have a router table, using that is far better.
It’s important to take some time to consider where you want the bit set so that you get the desired profile. Round-over bits can leave an edge or just make a soft round corner. I wanted the latter, so I set my bit as shown below.
Make sure that you move right along (especially with cherry) to avoid producing any serious burn that you’ll have to sand out later. Stay relaxed though. All but the very worst burning can be sanded out. Don’t do anything that feels scary. Rout all four sides. On this board I did both top and bottom, but you can make the profiles different on each. I have done that in the past with great success.
I sanded the board with my random-orbit sander. You can also do it by hand–if you like pain–or using a belt sander if you’re very careful. Begin with a course grit like 60 or 80 and then move through grits roughly as follows: 150, 220, 320. If you really want to go nuts, you can buff with four-ought (0000) steel wool. If you decide to do that, I recommend waiting until after you raise the grain.
To my surprise, I discovered early on that when a cutting board gets wet the first time, the end-grain gets fuzzy just like edge grain can. You really need to deal with this before treating the board with mineral oil. This is done by deliberately raising the grain and then sanding it down one last time. To do this, simply get the entire board wet. Run water over the board. Once it has been completely flooded for a few seconds, dry it with a rag or towel. Set it aside to fully dry for a while. Once it is completely dry, sand it again using 220 grit and any finer grit you like. If you want to buff the board with steel wool, this is the time to do that as well.
This is what the board looks like after the sanding is done.
Now it’s time to add feet (if you want) and treat the board with mineral oil.
To treat the board, flood the surface with mineral oil. You can put oil in a shallow pan, or simply pour a puddle onto the surface of the board. Remove the bulk of the excess by scraping (use rubber or plastic to avoid scratches) or using a rag. Let the board sit for ten minutes or so and then treat it again. I find that two or three treatments is sufficient. Once you have completed the last treatment you can apply the feet.
Notice how the oil makes the grain pop!
For this board I am using simple rubber feet, but I have used wooden toy wheels and dowels. When I do that, I apply the feet first so that the oil does not interfere with gluing.
I find that brass hardware is a good idea because people will wash their boards and steel screws will get rusty and look bad. Be certain that you pre-drill for the screws. This is hardwood, not pine, after all!
Another important note about oil. It takes at least 24 hours before all the excess oil has come out of the board. During that time, you’ll need to wipe off the excess occasionally. You’ll know you are done when you no longer leave fingerprints after touching the board. That’s usually in about 48 hours.
Here is a picture of the finished board. This one is a good size for cutting vegetables or cheese. We quite often use one like this for serving crackers and cheese. In case you are wondering, I would normally sell a board like this for $75.00. I gave this one to my brother as a wedding gift.
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