A few weeks ago a blogger friend at Forest Garden blog and I were emailing about the holidays, grandchildren, the weather, etc. and she mentioned that she wanted another cutting board. She was looking for a unique cutting board, wanted a live edge, wanted a wood with character and wanted the board to be unique!
She soon picked out Quilted Flame Maple wood. I then started looking for a really nice piece that she might like. I found the two boards in the first picture, both are approximately 26 inches long and 10 inches wide. Since the board on the left had the nicer live edge, this would be the board I would use.
I sent her pictures and she loved it. We planned to keep the live edge on one side. The dimensions of her new board needed to be 12 x 14, which was an exact size for the area she planned to store it to make is easy to use everyday. Over the next week I started working on her board.
Check out Forest Garden blog!
Stay tuned for Part II coming soon!
Enjoy your evening! 🙂
Below are a couple Walnut Teardrop Cutting boards with handle and a Walnut Round Cutting board with handle. All of these boards just came out of the oil bath after an hour and are drying, waiting for the last finishing process! The oil makes the boards really shinny until it is dry.
Michael's Woodcrafts 
This is awesome Michael! I’m sure she will love it. 🙂
thank you! I hope so too!! 🙂
That is just gorgeous wood, Michael. The one on the left has the beautiful live edge, but also exactly the grain I was hoping for. Cudos to you, my friend! Thank you for showing the work in progress, and for your kind link back to FG. I’m so excited that you’ve created this custom board, and can’t wait to see it!
Cheers! WG
Good morning Elizabeth!! It turned out beautiful, Debbie loves it and ask me to make her one just like it!! 🙂 I will ship your board tomorrow morning!
Reblogged this on Forest Garden and commented:
Artist Michael Laico is making a gorgeous “live” cutting board for me in his South Carolina wood shop. Loved ones gave me a Christmas gift of cash to purchase exactly what I wanted as a Christmas gift, and I decided to invest it in a beautiful work of art which I’ll also use every single day in the kitchen. Michael makes such beautiful custom cutting boards, serving boards, wine bottle stoppers, and so many other items from interesting and unusual woods. It has been a pleasure to correspond with him about the details of this work, and it is my pleasure to share his posts about making my cutting board with you. -WG
Beautiful work and I’m sure they’ll give pleasure to the people who get to use them everyday.
thank you so much! 🙂
I greatly enjoy my cutting boards Michael–as I know each one is made with great care!!! Thank you—Julie
Good morning Julie!! Thank you! 🙂
going to be really neat! thanks for the new phrase/education…live edge. 🙂
I just know she loved it even more than I do and that’s a lot!
Good afternoon Kelli!! I hope you and your family are having a great 2015!! 🙂
Beautiful wood! I can’t wait to see the finished board.
Hi Gretchen! This wood is very similar in grain to yours!! 🙂
I never knew it was quilted. 🙂 Gorgeous!
Flame figuring is really beautiful in wood. We had an 1800s flame birch drop leaf table and it was a beautiful thing.
Yes it sure is and hard to find. Your table sound really nice. A good friend makes guitars and violins and uses flame quilted maple billets for his work. He orders the billets all the time and occasionally he will get a few that don’t meet his high expectations and let me buy them from him. I got lucky this time, he had two nice ones. 🙂
Wow that wood is incredible, so beautiful the grain and markings. I want one.
It is very beautiful and finishes out nicely! 🙂
Wow, Michael! Beautiful!
Just last week I was reading in a Canadian newspaper about the return of wood products. You wouldn’t think that in a land with so much wood, we’d have given way to so many fake wood products, but we have. I was heartened by the stories of woodworkers who have been designing wonderful pieces for daily use, even though most are custom-orders.
I hope that as we approach Canada’s sesquicentennial (a great word which I use every chance I get — smile), more and more Canadians will take the time to appreciate products made from the remarkable woods and wooden products we have in this country – after all, our flag shows the maple leaf!
Good evening Cynthia! It’s hard to believe isn’t it, it’s the same issue here in the US too. That seems to be the only way people know how to compete is to use less quality products. About 40% of my business is custom orders, everything that you can imagine made of wood or repairing old antiques that are real wood. I am working on a couple of bar stools made of solid walnut and cherry that will take me about 2-3 weeks to completed. These will be special pieces for the owner that can pass down to the family as they will last forever. That’s a great word, sesquicentennial. Artisans know the importance of using quality products that produce beautiful heirlooms. I totally agree with you!
I hear you. You are creating pieces that can be a legacy from one generation of a family to another. And in so doing, you are creating a legacy too, Michael!
thank you Cynthia, you are very kind! 🙂 🙂