Walnut Cutting Board

I made this cutting board about 2 1/2 years ago.  Well, I FINISHED it 2 1/2 years ago.  I started it a year before that.  It sat unfinished for a whole year.

Several years before,  I was given oodles of 8/4 walnut by a woodworker who wasn’t able to work with it anymore.  I had dozens of 16 foot boards that sat in the shop for years before I decided what to do with it.

After seeing some videos of woodworkers making cutting boards, I decided to try making one.  I cut several boards from a longer board, ripped them into inch and a half strips, and milled them square and smooth.

I chose a good arrangement and numbered the strips.

Then I glued them up with Titebond III.

There was a decent amount of squeeze out to clean up before running this slab through the drum sander.

Then I ran it through the drum sander and sanded smooth and flat all the way to 220 grit.

I then cut it to the shape I liked.  I also wanted to route a juice groove on one side.  This took a little figuring out.  I opted to create a template with 1/4 inch plywood to guide my router.

Here’s a shot of the finishing touch of the template.

It routed very well, and I’m pleased with the resulting groove.

I routed the finger grooves on the ends at the router table.

I had recently gotten a branding iron and a custom Borouz logo brand made.  This was the first project I tried it on.

It was a little crooked and a little light at the top.  But after sanding, it looked pretty good.

I decided to make tins of butcher block oil, made from bee’s wax and mineral oil.  This is very easy to make.  You can order melting bee’s wax pellets online.  Simply add them to a tin at about 50/50 and heat the tin.  A hot plate works well for this.

Once heated and mixed, allow to cool.  It makes a very nice paste wax.

This is applied liberally to all surfaces of the board and allowed to absorb.

After a day, I polished with a soft rag.

The results were amazing.  The finished cutting board looks fantastic.