Making a Black Walnut and Maple End Grain Cutting Board

Black Walnut and hard rock Maple End Grain Cutting Board

I wanted to share with you a little bit of the process of making an end grain cutting board. I am making two boards using a combination of Black Walnut and hard rock Maple. These two woods will give a nice contract of color. The final size of each board will be 14″ x 20″ x 1-1/2″ thick.

The first step is to hand pick nice hardwood, preferably woods with nice grain, color, square, no splitting and no worm holes. If you purchased wood, let the wood acclimate to the conditions of your shop for a week before starting your project. Knowing the final size of the board allows you to calculate the total board feet of hardwood required to make the board. Keep in mind that there are numerous cuts and glue ups in the process. You need to account for all of the cuts as each cut on a table saw waste 1/8 of material.

Prepare your cuts for the best use of the hardwood and the design.  If you plan to use different types of woods, you may need more board feet of one wood verses the other based on your design. Since this board is primary Black Walnut, I will need more Black Walnut than Maple.

Plan your cuts based on final size of the board. Start by cutting the wood into strips. The size of the strips is determined based on the final design and size of the board. Glue all of the strips together in the sequence of your design, leaving the boards in the clamps for a minimum of 24 hours.

The above photo shows the Black Walnut and Maple strips, this is the first glue up. After removing the glued strips from the clamps, both surfaces were sanded smooth to size per my design.

Next step was to cross cut the above boards into strips that are 1-5/8 wide, which will make a 1-5/8 thick board. The 1-5/9 thickness provides 1/8″ for flattening both surfaces and all the sanding. After cutting the strips, each piece is carefully placed in the proper sequence based on the design. Every other piece is the opposite of the last piece.  After each piece is in order, it is time for the second glue up.

The above photo shows the second glue up of all of the strips that were cut to 1-5/8″. This will be the final design.

In the above photo, after 24 hours, I removed the boards from the clamps. I then cut the board to size, 14 x 20 inch and started sanding the surface on all sides. The final thickness will be 1-1/2 inch. Once this is completed, I will cut finger pulls of each end and then sand them smooth. My sanding process starts at 120 grit up to the final grit of 300.

The sanding took nearly an hour to go from 120 grit to 300 grit. They are looking good, flat on all surfaces and all sanded. Next step is to cut the finger pulls, then apply the final finish.

The above photo shows the board after cutting the finger pulls, sanding the finger pulls and applying the final finish.

Finished boards!

 

I hope you enjoyed my post!

This board is stall available, made to order only. If you are interested, please email me from my Contact Us page. Click CONTACT US button below!

 

 

New Boards Made The Last Month

Above: Black Walnut Board

I thought I would post today a few of the boards that I have made this month. There were a few more that I made but did not get a picture of them!

 

Above: Ambrosia Maple, Cherry and Black Walnut

This one is 14 inch in diameter and has a lot of different grain character and colors, it’s stunning!

Above: Black Walnut and Maple

Customer wanted a long board to place beside her range, 22 inches long and 6-1/2 inches wide.

Above: Black Walnut and Maple end grain cutting board

Rachel was looking for a unique board that could take lot of use. See her picture below!

The above photo was taken by Rachel, she is a wonderful cook, check out her Instagram page, @5280Meat

 

Above: Black Walnut board with handle.

Check out Trina’s picture below of this board, round board and ice cream scoop! Trina is a wonderful cook, check out her Instagram page, @Paleo_Newbie_Recipes

 

My Wood Conditioner is homemade combining a mixture of food-grade mineral oil and pure food grade beeswax. It will help you maintain the finish on your boards, reviving, condition and help protect your boards from moisture and drying out.

Enjoy your afternoon!

After months of hard work and dedication, my NEW website is live!! I would love it if you would go take a look, here is the link:  MichaelsWoodcrafts

www.MichaelsWoodcrafts.com

Purchasing my work is Simple, click the above image or the SHOP NOW button below to be directed to my website.

 

 

 

 

Rustic Black Walnut Wood slices

Good evening y’all!

In early January I wrote about cutting a Black Walnut log into these Walnut cookies slices. At the time the black walnut tree had just been cut down so the moisture content was 100%. After 5 weeks, most of these are at 20% moisture but there are a few at 13-15%. It will be another few weeks before the moisture is between 8-9% so that I can begin finishing them. Check out my previous post from January 7th, Walnut Wood Cookies

I spent nearly 7 hours today removing the remaining bark, running them thru the planner on both sides and cleaning up the edges. They are looing really nice, a few cracks but that adds character. Most all of these are 12 inch in diameter and 2 inches thick.

All of them have really great color and should finish out beautifully! They will make great cutting boards, serving boards or plate chargers!

 

The National Weather Service has predicted a winter storm for our area starting Monday evening thru Tuesday with accumulations of 4 to 7 inches of freezing rain, sleet and snow! Where ever you are, I hope you are in a warm place!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you enjoy your weekend! 🙂

 

I will soon be adding a new board design, see picture below!

Serving boards

 

 

 

 

Custom Cutting Boards

I wanted to show you a custom board I finished and shipped this week. Sometimes when I pull out my lumber to begin making a new piece I can tell that the wood is beautiful, this time it turned out more beautiful than I initially thought. Walnut has ever rick color.

The customer wanted a large board made from walnut to use in his kitchen. This is a custom size board, 20 x 30 inch and made using American Walnut. I am not sure exactly how they plan to use the board other than he mentioned that he does a lot of baking.

Since he lives in California, it will take 3-4 days before FedEx delivers the board,  I sure hope he likes it!

 

As a gift with every board I send a free tin of Wood Conditioner. My Wood Conditioner is homemade combining a mixture of food-grade mineral oil and pure beeswax. It will help you maintain the finish on your boards, reviving, condition and help protect your boards from moisture and drying out. To learn more, visit my Wood Conditioner page.

Enjoy your afternoon! 🙂

 

 

Oval Cutting Board with Juice Groove

 

A couple weeks ago I was contact by email by about making a board. She was looking for a replacement oval cutting board insert for a sterling silver platter. She told me that she could find these platters on wedding gift website. The problem was if the board gets broken or you lose your board, you are out of luck, they do not offer a new replacement board.

She said the board was used for carving meat and it had a juice groove. It was oval, 14-1/4 inches long by 9 inches wide. The underside was beveled to fit into the silver platter. After several emails with pictures, she sent me her old board, she wanted to know if I could make 4 of them exactly like her old board. The next day her old board arrived.

Her old board was made from maple wood, the measurements were exactly what she had told me.

I first made a template to match her old board. Once I had the template completed, I then made her 4 new boards that were exactly like her old board, handmade from hard rock maple.

I shipped the boards to her and she loves them and they all fit into her silver platter perfectly! 🙂 So if you have an old board that needs repair or you need a replace board exactly the same size or wood, etc. I would be glad to make it for you!

Every kitchen needs a good cutting board or serving board!

Handmade Cutting Boards and Serving Boards

 

 

 

 

New Cutting and Serving Boards

Home

Good evening y’all,

We are getting hammered with the snow from Winter Storm PAX! By the time this storm ends we are suppose to have 14 inches! It’s 2o degrees with a wind chill of 11 degrees.

While it is snowing I decided to write this post and introduce my two new cutting board designs. Click the link under the image to see more pictures!

Double Handle Cutting Board or Serving Board
10-1/2″ wide X 16″ long X 3/4″ thick

My new double handle cutting board is a beautiful design and it is practical for moving around food, cooking and serving food straight to the table. It is also great for your everyday kitchen chopping and slicing too. My other new cutting board is a rectangle cutting board.

Rectangle Cutting Board
11-1/4″ wide X 15-1/2″ long X 3/4″ thick

If you need a nice cutting board, this is it!

All of my boards are handcrafted one at a time in my shop. I make both of these boards in a variety of different wood, rock hard Maple, Northern Cherry and Walnut.

What do you think about my new cutting boards?

I hope everyone is staying safe and warm. Enjoy your evening!
Michael

Recent Post

My Work

This Week

I don’t know about you guys but this has been a really busy week for me. I am ready for the weekend and tomorrow is Friday, yea! The weekend weather is suppose to be nice and cooler. Yesterday I finished the end grain cutting board I made special for Ina Garten – chef on Barefoot Contessa and today I got it shipped. I shipped it using FedEx so if FedEx does their job it should arrive tomorrow at her home before noon.

The board I made was longer than I normally make, above is a picture. Click on any of my images to enlarge and get close-up view.

The cutting board is ready for final packing and shipping. I always include a tin of my Wood Conditioner so that you can keep your board looking great. Look at my other cutting boards and serving boards.

I can’t wait to hear from Ina to know if she likes it, I hope to post a follow up soon, wish me luck!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Is Today the Day!

I have been trying to get several large chains to purchase my cutting boards. I’ve spent alot of time writing letters, sending emails and shipping samples. Only a couple of the stores that I have contacted have responded but were not interested. I had one store that I received a requested for a sample board. The sample got shipped earlier in the week. Several local shops are selling my boards which is nice.

More pictures of my end grain cutting boards.

Since I love to cook I watch alot of cooking, baking and grilling shows, including the Food Network. I got the idea that would try to contact a few of the chefs so I send out some emails. I got one response today from Ina Garten, who is the chef on Barefoot Contessa. I am custom making her a board and hope to have it shipped next week. I sure hope she loves it and uses it on her show.

I handcraft each end grain chef cutting boards one at a time from maple and cherry in my shop. It is a great product that will last a lifetime and will look beautiful in any kitchen. Don’t you just love the look, the ramdon pattern of Maple and Cherry wood makes each board unique. It’s GORGEOUS! My boards are sure to be a converstaion piece at your next party. What a great way to display cheese with wine.

Maybe I am out of my league but I am determined to fine someone to sell my boards. Wish me luck!

Continue following this story… shipped the board to Ina This Week!

I’ve tried setting up a page on my blog so that everyone can see my boards. So they are officially for sale. Stop by our end grain cutting board page and check them out for yourself!